


I Salute You For Your Courage

by servatia83



Series: Your Only Human Part [1]
Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Genre: Adventure, Did I mention spoilers?, M/M, Post-Game(s), Scotland, Spoilers for Black Light, Spoilers for Human Revolution, Spoilers for Mankind Divided, Spoilers for System Rift kind of, i have no idea what you call that genre really someone help me out here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-15 07:25:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 38,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9224855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servatia83/pseuds/servatia83
Summary: Francis Pritchard finally decides to give up Detroit as a bad job. And Adam Jensen gets a call that sends him to an address in Scotland.





	1. A Lonesome Mourner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((The chapter heading is from the song_ Away _by Deine Lakaien. The name of the story itself comes from_ Surrendering _by Alanis Morissette. The address near Aberdeen that I give below should – apart from being incomplete – not exist. The highest number on the mentioned road should be 16, unless I failed at reading a map.  
>  I wanted to withhold posting until I’m done writing, but I can’t contain it any longer. I’m back in the office on January 9, and I won’t be able to write there. Or only very little. I also need to keep some spare time for studying Ukrainian, so updates will definitely not be daily, but they’ll come. I have this pretty much mapped out, that’s the good thing about it. If I should feel a need to do some serious editing with an already posted chapter, I’ll say so, but at this point, I doubt it.  
> The rating isn’t justified yet (as of chapter 4) but it will be, so yes, I meant that.))_

Frank had stopped listening to the TV the moment it was clear the Human Restoration Act had failed, now that they had finally managed to vote. A year later than scheduled, no less, a year for more death, more terror, more fear mongering. By a margin, yes. But it had failed. Eliza Cassan was spewing poison, a U.N. spokesperson talked about temperance and how a lot had to change now that it was clear all augmented people were not going to be stuffed into ghettos. Maybe the segretation would end. Maybe justice would once again be available for augmented people. Maybe.

‘Mr Pritchard?’ Judging by the concerned tone, the nurse had tried talking to him for a bit.

‘Sorry. I was … distracted.’ He put down his pocket secretary. He’d checked off a few items on his list. Fake papers. Checking on a couple of people to make sure they were still alive. Booking a flight. All done, aside from one small thing.

‘Your last test came away okay. You can leave.’

‘Checked with my insurance?’

‘Ah … yeah. All seems in order.’

‘Good.’ He got up, glad to be able to leave. He still had to deliver his payment. Not that his personal forger would have demanded it. Not after what she’d done to him ages ago. In a different lifetime. ‘Glad to be rid of this place. Am I immune to this crap now? ‘Cause I’m going to be on a plane in a few hours.’

‘To this particular virus, yes. But you should try not to catch another.’

‘Thanks. Makes me really confident.’ He grabbed what he had brought – a warm jacket, his laptop, and a set of spare clothes. One more visit and he’d be off in the night.

Ϡ

The voice in Adam’s infolink was accompanied by a crackle and impossible to pinpoint. Trying to get a source ended with a random streak of numbers that kept changing. It was impossible to recognise the voice because of the heavy encryption. How many people could reach him that way? A handful. But then again, he’d been surprised before. The contact had Juggernaut written all over it.

‘… abductions in Scotland … missing people … reappear confused and with … weren’t there before. Police can’t … on who did it or from where, probably from … country. … might want to … out before … of hand.’

‘Yeah. Can I get that clearer?’

‘… struggling … right now. … flight going in four days. You’ll find a … mailbox. Think about it. … address … 21 Station … East, Peterculter AB14 0PT. Be there. … will all … there.’

‘If I’m asked so nicely,’ Adam muttered into the dead link. It sounded like a trap. The only problem with him was that he was intrigued. Very much so.

Ϡ

Frank was already at the gate when he decided to just do it. He recorded two brief messages to someone he was leaving behind. One went to David Sarif. It stated in no uncertain terms that he would be unreachable and that he shouldn’t even bother trying to use his infolink. It also said that he was eternally grateful for a chance no-one else might have given him, but that at the same time he thought he had cleared his debt. He wasn’t trying to go dark, so if Sarif wanted to find out where he was and send him a Christmas card he should knock himself out, but he shouldn’t do it because he wanted something.

The second message came without revealing who he was and went to one Dylan Ferry, an actor for Picus. All it said was that he knew that Picus couldn’t get in touch with the writer for Ferry’s show for a bit, but that he had a feeling they would be in contact shortly and more than in time to keep things going. It also held a statement that Ferry was part of a dream come true for him. Frank had heard the guy in interviews. He wasn’t stupid. He’d figure it out.

The gate opened. For a moment, when Frank held his papers over the scanner, he got nervous. Then there was a green light and a beep and for the first time in a long time, he smiled as he walked along the gangway.

Ϡ

There were only so many people Adam knew that might be able to trace the wild message he’d received. There was only one of them he trusted enough to ask. The problem was, the man had vanished off the face of the earth. Francis Pritchard might not be an easy person to be around, but he was reliable, intelligent, and Adam knew from experience that he could trust him with his life.

There were a million possible reasons why he couldn’t raise him with his infolink. Adam’s eyes were glued to the silenced TV in his apartment, where Eliza Cassan was prattling on about how the Spanish flu had decimated so many people in the US. Then, of course, there was the violence, and the fact that Pritchard had the talent to get involved with the wrong things or people. It didn’t look good.

Adam convinced himself his main concern was the secrecy of the message. He had found a ticket to Scotland in his mailbox and the exact address on a piece of paper. He wasn’t worried about Pritchard. The hacker had just killed their infolink connection, like he’d once said he should have. No reason to worry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((Since I live in a country where an election has recently been postponed after the previous one was overturned, I don’t believe I’m reaching with the thought that it gets delayed for a year just to suit my whims.))_


	2. Watchers on the Wall

The large house right by the river was locked. It took Frank all of twenty seconds to crack the security. Soundlessly, he stepped inside. As the door closed behind him, he allowed himself to relax. It was cold, wet, and forsaken here. But the air was clean, and for once, he didn’t feel that he had to expect being whacked over the head at any given moment.

From a room down the hall, he heard someone clattering. Probably making breakfast. He left his shoes at the door and walked to the source of the sound in his socks.

The woman in the kitchen looked as if she had been born here, but he knew better. She was short and stocky, wild red curls giving her the look of a girl from an old Disney film. He leaned against the doorframe as if he owned the place and folded his arms. He did his best to imitate the local speech pattern for his sentence. ‘Your security needs fixed.’

The answer was a highly satisfying scream. The woman turned, knife ready to throw, and froze in mid movement.

‘And I’d thank you for not murdering me.’

For a couple of seconds she stared at him. Then she dropped the knife and ran towards him, pulling him into a crazily tight hug. He reciprocated a little awkwardly.

The woman withdrew and clutched his face. ‘Is that really you, Frank? Did you just get here? And why the hell didn’t you just ring the damn doorbell? You look like shit, do you know that?’

‘Those are a lot of questions, Abi.’

‘I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. Why did you come? I mean … God. Why didn’t you come sooner? Or answer one of my fucking messages?’ She took a step away from him and glared. ‘You thought I’m trying to spy on you for our parents, didn’t you?’

‘Well … yes. Sort of.’

‘You’ve always been crazy.’ She shook her head, but her expression softened again. ‘What brings you here?’

‘I had the flu. Which is probably why I look as if I’d been pulled from the bottom of a lake.’

‘What flu, Frank? The Spanish flu that almost wiped everyone out?’

‘That’s the one. Don’t worry, I’m not contagious. As you see, I’m not dead either, but I was in hospital and I was sick enough for long enough to … think about a couple of things.’

‘You alone, Frank? You know I said you can bring a significant other.’

‘Have you met me, Abi?’

‘Regrettably, yes.’

‘So. How’s Fabian? Does he know you’re inviting people to stay at your house?’

‘Good question. Next question.’

‘Uh.’ Frank shrugged. ‘Where do I bring my stuff?’

‘Upstairs. Follow me.’

Ϡ

Adam reached the designated address in the middle of nowhere around noon. He had read a newspaper on the bus here, and there had indeed been something about abductions. It didn’t seem as if the police were unable to handle it, however. There was no indication why someone from the Juggernaut collective would send him here. On the other hand, the abducted people had all been natches. Had been being the emphasised word. They had come back with their memories gone and random augments. Some cranial, a couple of hands, and some that people weren’t even sure what they were meant to do. The shut-down of all the L.I.M.B. clinics was coming back to bite the world.

He took a careful round around the house. It was pretty idyllic. White picket fence, a small river nearby, pretty much at the edge of the village. The suspicious part was that the house was a bunker. Not by the way it was built, but by the security. There had to be a central switch of some sort, but to reach that, he had to get inside first. Not only the front- and backdoor were locked, even the windows. There were cameras, too. God only knew what they did, but they followed Adam’s every moment and when he got too close glared at him in the angry yellow that told him he was about to trigger an alarm. His infolink was silent as the grave. He had to keep his attention on his surroundings. This might well be an ambush.

Adam took some time to learn the cameras’ moments when they weren’t already tailing him. At first they seemed rather random, but there was actually a pattern. The one over the front door zoomed left, then right, stayed for five seconds, went to the gate, slowly down the path to the door, left, lingered, back to the gate, fast back to the door, and started over. It was both ridiculous and brilliant.

‘Who the hell are you?’ he muttered.

‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’

Adam froze. He wasn’t easy to scare, but disembodied voiced seemed to do the trick. ‘Who’s there?’ he asked, spinning, trying to find the tell-tale shift in the light that gave away someone with a cloaking aug.

‘I am the MANES.’ The voice was odd. Like several voices, male and female, speaking together, not exactly in sync but close enough to be easily understandable.

‘Manes?’

‘Multi-layered and naturelike electronic security.’

‘Oh God.’

‘I am not a deity, even though my name is derived from spirits.’

‘You’re an AI, aren’t you?’

‘Very observant. I am uncertain if you are an intruder.’

‘If you’re the resident AI, maybe you know me. I’m Adam Jensen. I was invited here.’

‘Please retract your eye-shields and move closer to the camera for a retinal scan.’

‘Ah. No. Sorry.’

‘No Adam Jensen is expected on this day. If you do not comply, I have to assume that you are an impostor and act accordingly. Please leave the premises or approach the camera in a non-offensive manner.’

Adam glared at the camera. Not that he thought it would have any effect. ‘Very well. Hurt me and I’ll blind you.’

‘Your crude threats are quite unnecessary.’

Shaking his head and still wary, Adam did as he was told. This time, the white light dimmed to something gentler as he approached but didn’t change colour. But what with an AI running things here, that might not mean much. ‘Who wrote you?’

‘I shall not take the name of my Creator in vain.’

‘Oh, for crying out loud.’                     

‘I cannot cry it out loud, either.’

‘Didn’t they teach you idioms?’

‘I chose not to acknowledge it. Retinal scan complete. You are still 23 hours and 42 minutes early. I am not scheduled to let you in at this time.’

Slowly but surely, Adam was losing patience. ‘Listen MANES. You know I am supposed to be here. You know who I am. I had a chance to take an earlier flight, so I did. Does it really matter?’

‘At this point, the owner of the house is not here.’

‘Did anyone claim I’m a thief?’

‘No-one claimed you’re not a thief.’

‘What did they say about me, I wonder? Can you tell me that?’

‘Adam Jensen. Ex SWAT. List of Augmentations: Retinal, Cranial, …’

‘I know those. Skip that.’

‘With pleasure. Current employer unknown. Until recently Interpol. Occasional work for Juggernaut collective. Preference for carton décor. Lover of old clocks. Lacks sense of humour. Preferred food item: Cereal. Alignment: chaotic good.’

‘What? That’s quite enough.’ Some of these things were plain ridiculous. Some of them were very private. None were completely wrong. Whoever had written this AI knew a lot about him. The likelihood that this was the Juggernaut’s doing had increased. God only knew what they had managed to find out about him. ‘So. MANES. What is it to be?’

‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ The door swung open. Adam hesitated. ‘Scared?’

He glared at the camera again. ‘No. Just weirded out.’ Still cautious, he stepped inside.

The door closed behind Adam with a snap. He turned and tried to open it, but it had locked again. Inside, he couldn’t see any cameras, but they could well be hidden. There had to be a control panel somewhere. A traitorous patch was on the wall right next to the door. It was closed.

The moment he approached it, a diode on it glowed yellow. ‘MANES?’

‘Yes, Adam?’

He sighed. ‘You’re watching me?’

‘Of course.’

‘How? I don’t see any cameras.’

‘No, you don’t.’ There was a distinct note of pride in the voice. Whoever had programmed the AI had an odd sense of humour.

‘Look. Tell me where I can and can’t go. I don’t want to trigger any defences here.’

‘You can move freely in the house, but any attempt to hack the security will be seen as an act of aggression. Some rooms may be locked. I advise you to keep them that way.’

‘Speaking of locked doors,’ Adam said, ‘would you mind opening the front door? I don’t like being locked in.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, Adam.’

‘Oh God. Your … ah, Creator is a nerd.’

‘And what does it make you if you know so from one sentence?’

Adam opened his mouth and closed it. ‘What have I got myself into?’ He raised a hand. ‘If you answer that by blabbing the address of this house now I’ll trash something.’

‘That course of action is inadvisable.’

‘Yeah.’

‘If you need a bathroom, there is one right down the hall, last door on the left. If that is why you fear being trapped.’

‘Would you watch me, there, too?’

‘A mystery for the ages, Adam.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((Oh God, that AI got out of hand. What have I done? For reference, I’d like it pronounced MAH-nes. Not mains.  
>  And references? Don’t get me started. Chapter heading – _Song of Ice and Fire _; alignment: DnD; the AI quotes the third commandment (take the name in vain),_ The Spider and the Fly _by Mary Howitt (Will you walk into my parlour?), HAL 9000 from_ Space Odyssey _(I’m afraid I can’t do that), and a Tranquil from_ Dragon Age: Origins _(That course of action …). The name comes from Roman mythology, a collective of spirits of the dead.  
>  The term ‘natches’ for non-augmented people is something I have taken from the _Black Light _novel, I don’t remember it being used in the games.))_


	3. Don’t Look Into the Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((This chapter heading is a line from R.E.M.’s_ The Flowers of Guatemala _.))_

Frank knew his sister. They hadn’t seen each other for ages, but that didn’t change the fact that he knew her better than almost anyone else and he could read her. She tried to be positive and cheerful for him. She’d tried all day while she’d taken him on a tour of the place, shown him where to buy a motorcycle, had gone to lunch with him. But the walls were coming down and there was nothing he could do.

They came back to their house, let themselves in, and Abigail vanished in her living room. He heard music from in there. After clearing away their shopping, he realised that she was listening to the same song on repeat over and over. With a sigh, he entered the room to find her sitting shaking on the floor, her forehead pressed against her knees.

Frank had never been good with drama. Not with his own and certainly not with others’. But this was Abi, his baby sister, whom he’d hurt deeply by mistrusting her, whom he’d ignored for years. Swallowing his discomfort, Frank stepped closer and knelt beside her. ‘Hey,’ he said softly. ‘Abi. Abigail.’ She didn’t react. ‘Beagle.’

This time she did look. It was a withering look, but better than nothing. ‘You’ve got some nerve, _Wendy_.’

Frank grinned. He stood and extended a hand to her. With a rather sceptical look, she took it. Frank pulled her close and pressed his lips to her temple. ‘Dance with me, Abi.’

‘Getting sentimental?’

‘Yes. I missed you.’

‘How hard was it to say that?’

‘Cost me a few years of my life.’

She wrapped her arms around him and they moved to the music, slowly. When he felt her tremors subside the song had repeated itself another two times. He pulled away. ‘Can I please turn that off? It’s starting to go on my nerves.’

‘Yeah.’

He did. ‘What on earth is going on, Abi? When you sent me that message you sounded happy, and I bought it. Today … not so much. So I’ll ask again. Where is Fabian? Did something happen to him? I know he has a CASIE aug …’

‘That … isn’t it. He’s fine. He’s in Guatemala City, visiting his Lita …’

‘Hold it. His what exactly?’

Abi’s lips twitched minutely. ‘His grandma. But the thing is … I don’t know if he’s coming back.’ She swallowed. ‘We … ah … had a major disagreement. I can’t seem to get pregnant. And he wants to drag me from one doctor to the next and I just … can’t do this anymore. If it’s not meant to be … You know. But Fabian … well. I mean, I wanted kids, but I don’t want … this.’

Frank huffed. ‘Well. When does he intend to let you know? I mean, how long has he been gone?’

‘Two weeks. That’s okay, she’s probably dying and he wanted to stay there. But … well. He didn’t say when.’

‘I’m a horrible adviser for this kind of thing, Abi, but if I were you, I’d give him a deadline.’

‘Yeah. I did. It ended today and I don’t have an answer. And … I don’t know what to do now, Frank. Do I call my lawyer, or Fabian, or do I wait?’

‘I can’t answer that for you. God, I have the worst timing. You probably want to be alone.’

‘No!’ Abigail licked her lips. ‘No. I’m glad you’re here. I can’t talk to mom and dad. They … ah … well. That I moved out of the US kind of made me an ingrate, too. Dad’s words were, ‘I have no children.’’

‘Damn, Abi.’

‘Don’t pretend you’re surprised. It’s not like I haven’t made friends here. I’m not lonely, not by a long shot. But … well. You made my week … well, in fact, my year when you came here.’ She scowled at him. ‘Now. You have a call to make, I believe, don’t you?’

Frank leaned in close and answered in a whisper. ‘Yes, I will. But first, I think, we should find out what the shiny new silent alarm wants to say to us.’

Ϡ

Adam had heard the door open on his attempt to learn something about the place. The inhabitant – or inhabitants – had an impressive collection of books, an elaborate kitchen, and generally good taste. A few rooms were locked, but most were accessible. The upper floor was also inhabited, it seemed, but with fewer open doors. He had tried to get past one lock for a bit, but the AI had reminded him quickly of its presence. Just when he had decided to find out what would happen if he ignored it, someone entered.

Adam’s first instinct was to confront whoever it was that had come in directly. Then he thought better of it. He stayed quiet, wondering if the AI would announce him. But for now, the blasted thing was quiet. Cautiously, he moved down the stairs after it seemed the arrivals had settled in one room. If you really wanted to learn something about people you had to see them when they thought they were alone. He approached sticking to the shadows and glanced around the doorframe.

And all it once, it made sense. The god-awful AI, the cryptic summoning, everything. The only thing that didn’t make sense was that of all people, Francis Pritchard was dancing with a woman. He’d never thought of the man as a social person, let alone a romantic. A jab of some unpleasant emotion Adam refused to pin a name on filled him and Adam decided to persuade the AI to announce him before he could contemplate it further.

Ϡ

Frank ambled back to the radio and a wall panel next to it, hidden by a picture. ‘Hello, MANES. What’s going on here?’

‘Welcome home. Adam Jensen has arrived prior to his ETA and demanded entrance. He appears to be spying on you right now.’

‘Of course.’ Frank sighed. ‘MANES, amplify please. Jensen! Whatever you’re doing, stop it and get here.’ Frank’s voice boomed through the entire house, from every hidden panel in every room.

Abigail had clapped her hands to her ears. ‘Frank! Are you out of your mind?’

Adam stepped out of the shadow and through the doorframe. ‘Some AI you’ve created here. All that in three days?’

‘I’m good, but I’m not that good. I had basically the same thing back at home. When I had an actual apartment, mind you, before the world decided to go belly up.’

‘What the hell am I even doing here, Pritchard?’

‘You are going to help me here. I have … a few friends, believe it or not, and one of them happens to live here. He vanished, and he’s not the only one.’

‘I read the news. Why didn’t you say who you are?’

‘You made it abundantly clear you don’t want to have anything to do with me the last time we spoke. I don’t know anyone else I’d trust with this, though, and who could get the job done.’

‘And you think luring me here under a false premise would help?’

‘Oh, please, cut out the histrionics.  I never pretended …’

‘Oi!’ Abigail stood with her fists rammed into her sides. ‘Go outside if you want a cockfight, I won’t have it here. What is Adam Jensen doing here of all people, Frank?’

Frank shrugged. ‘You did say I could bring someone.’

‘A partner! Not someone to help prove you’re a stirrer!’

‘Like that needs proving,’ Adam said.

‘Ignore her.’

‘I’m going to ignore you, Pritchard. Miss Pritchard …’

‘Objection. Escriva.’

For a moment, Adam was silent. Escriva was a name that had become rather famous in the last decade. He shook the thought off. The name might not be overly common, but that didn’t mean anything. ‘Mrs Escriva, I am sorry. I got a cryptic message that called me to this address. I suppose Francis would have warned you because I was supposed to come tomorrow. I caught an earlier flight, I didn’t know this was a private property. I didn’t even know he had a sister.’

‘I’m starting to think this fellow spawned from sawdust. I can’t possibly share his genes.’

‘I … look. I’ll leave. Do you know where I can rent a room for a night? I’ll be flying back tomorrow.’

‘Jensen, don’t. There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you.’

‘I will not intrude on your sister, Pritchard.’

Abigail rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘Mr Jensen, you can stay. I really have no problem with you at all. It’s that idiot I’m mad at. Not that I can, for long.’ She whacked his arm for good measure. ‘But honestly, if you plan to fight, do it outside.’

‘If I fight with Pritchard, he’ll be sawdust after.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself.’

‘I detect an increase in your volume, Creator,’ the AI piped up. ‘Do you wish me to classify Adam as an intruder?’

‘No!’ Frank said sharply. ‘God, no. He’s … a guest. Give him access to whatever he wants to.’ He glared at Adam. ‘See? Full disclosure. You can look into every nook and cranny.’

‘Just what would your security do to an intruder?’

‘Oh. It would stun you. Nothing major.’

‘How?’

Frank raised his arms. ‘Want a tour? I’ll give you a tour. And an explanation how to wrangle the MANES.’

Abigail shook her head. ‘And I’ll play domestic and make dinner. I need some serious food right now.’


	4. History Overtaken

The moment Abigail had vanished and a door was closed between her and them, Adam rounded on Pritchard. ‘Are you insane? No, don’t answer, I know you are.’

‘Jensen, listen. The reason why I asked you to come is legitimate and serious. And there’s something else.’ He cast a glance back at the door behind which Abigail was working. ‘Look. I said full disclosure and I mean it.’

‘And a tour.’

‘It’s a house, Jensen, not a labyrinth. You know where you came in and I’m pretty sure you looked into every open room. The two closed ones down here were Abi’s bedroom and a storage cupboard with a safe. Upstairs the closed doors are the rooms I inhabit. There’s a spare bedroom upstairs. You can have it. And you can ignore the MANES now I’ve told it you’re a guest. It won’t bother you again.’

‘I’ll pay her.’

‘Abi doesn’t need your money. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of A. Escriva.’ Pritchard had the mildly disgusted look he reserved for Adam when he found him especially stupid.

‘You’re trying to tell me she’s the A. Escriva? The guy who writes those epic horror books? Like _Parson’s Pinions_?’

‘The _guy_ is a woman. She’ll give you a well-deserved talking-to you if you tell her you just assumed she must be a man. And not because it means you never even glanced at the preface. Have you brought any luggage?’

‘It’s still outside.’           

‘I’ll get it. Get into your room, upstairs, to the left, the door you’ll collide with. Wait there. We’ll talk.’

Adam watched Pritchard leave, feeling bemused. The other man seemed wired. As if he was … well, not frightened of Adam, but very uncertain. There was a bombshell coming. Damn his curiosity.

The spare bedroom was all dark wood and carpets. It had heavy curtains and a light that could be dimmed. There was a large wooden desk with inlaying and an elaborate and comfortable looking chair. The fact that Francis’s sister was a bestselling author of really good and unusually intelligent horror books was … strange. It wasn’t Adam’s favourite genre, but he’d read a couple of her novels, and there was something special to them.

Francis had always wanted to be a writer. He’d managed to get a contract with Picus only relatively recently. He’d been happy enough to send Adam his screenplay, and he’d read it in Prague. It was … not as bad as he’d thought. But the two played in a very different league. Then again, his TV series had become a success.

All this did explain how the woman could afford such an expensive style. Strange. He’d never really cared what the writer looked like, but if he’d given it any thought, he wouldn’t have come up with the person he’d just met.

‘Jensen, stop practising your dour expression. It’s perfect already.’ Pritchard dropped a small suitcase at the foot of the bed. ‘Is that all you own or all you brought?’

‘It’s … all I need. I thought I would rent a place and buy the rest. I usually do.’

‘Well. Look. It’s like this. Unless you’re still jogging around with Interpol, which I doubt you do, you can just as well leave Prague. Or has it grown on you?’

‘What do you want, Pritchard?’ Damn. He sounded tired even to his own ears.

‘Scotland is an interesting country, Jensen. Aberdeen especially. There’s a lot going on here. The fun part is that a bunch of companies are actively hiring augmented people. They’ve been doing it throughout all this mess, and now that the Human Restoration Act isn’t just twitching in agony but actually dead, it’ll get easier still. So by asking you to come here, I might have done you a favour, if you pause to think about it. Now you already have a permit that lets you work here because they practically gave you the status of a diplomat. I, well, I needed help.’

Francis straddled the chair and folded his arms on the backrest. ‘That help came from Conny. That’ll suffice as a name. I’ve … ah. How do I say this? I have a history, you see. I was in jail for a short time.’

This was it. The thing Francis had been so nervous about, Adam was sure of that. To him it was rather anticlimactic. ‘I know. Fraud, or something.’

Francis raised an eyebrow. ‘Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices and computers. Yes. I don’t even want to know how you found that out. Anyway, I wasn’t the only one they caught. There were four others. One of them was beaten to death in the streets during the Incident. One left for Scotland. One has been in and out of jail since then, but more in than out. And one is Conny. She works for a rather respectable company and as far as I know, like myself, she’s never done anything illegal again, but I called on her skills to get help with my papers.’

‘In other words, you asked her to forge papers that make it seem like you’re allowed to work in the EU.’

‘In essence, yes. You see, Adam, I wasn’t the one they caught. They were breaking into a building while I took care of the security remotely. Cameras and lasers and what not. It was a crappy system that could be penetrated from the outside with relative ease. We were rather close and had agreed that if one of us was found and could get a deal by ratting out the rest, we’d do it, but whoever talked owed each of the others one favour, no matter when or what.’

‘Odd. Normally people promise silence.’

‘And they never keep the promise, so we figured we’d rather not make it. Anyway, Conny was the one who talked. And I never called in my favour.’

‘Makes sense, if you have your twisted kind of mind, to put her at risk now.’

‘The only risk sits with me, and I even paid her, Jensen.’ He raised his hands. ‘I may get some money from Picus, and I may get a patent for the MANES and sell that stuff, but I really feel a lot safer if I have a normal job and can actually save some money. And we both know that Detroit isn’t going to recover any time soon, so I left for a place where I know there’s a friendly soul around.’

‘Understandable. What does any of this have to do with me?’

‘Peterculter is … quiet. Abi swears the people are rather nice, too. And Aberdeen’s just a stone-cast from here. If I were you, I’d do what I’m asking you, and in the meantime, consider making this stay permanent. It’s certainly friendlier than Prague.’

‘That isn’t difficult.’ Jensen walked to the window and looked out. He could see the river Dee from here. Francis was right. It was beautiful and idyllic and not a place he’d ever seen himself in. Or Pritchard, for that matter. ‘Why the hell did Sarif hire an ex-convict?’

‘Because he was in the jury and more impressed than shocked about how I’d done what I’d done.’ Francis looked at his hands. ‘I’d been charged with cyberterrorism and attempted theft, too, but I had nothing to do with the theft itself and the cyberterrorism part was just ridiculous. Thing is, I could have it easier by making the security kill everything that moved before my friends go in, but I didn’t. I did it the hard way, making sure there was no collateral damage. Still, the cyberterrorism charge … it unnerved me. I never even looked at the jurors, I was so frightened. Thought my life was fucked up for good. My parents still think so, they disowned me when I was sentenced. So I walk out of jail seven months later, walk to a tiny apartment that was assigned to me by some reintegration office thing, intend to drink myself stupid and let it sink in that I would never get a job. Cue David Sarif, ringing my doorbell the next morning and telling my hungover self that his cyber security guy is going to retire and would I like the job, if you can believe it.’

Adam thought about it and had to chuckle. ‘Yeah. Totally Sarif.’

Francis visibly shook himself. ‘This is the first and the last time we talk about this, Jensen. Now what do you know about the abductions?’

‘Precious little, aside from what you can read in the papers.’

‘Well. I know that Conny informed me that one of us has vanished. They’d had a lot of communication going on via internet, none of them has any augments. And now Marcus Dillinger has vanished. I want him found, Jensen. And I want him safe. And I want you to help me do that.’

Adam raised his arms. ‘How?’

Francis’s expression changed to something predatory. ‘Why, you look through the local police files, of course.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((About the screenplay … It can be found in Jensen’s apartment. And in_ System Rift _there’s NPCs telling you that you look like the guy from the TV but with shorter hair or some such.))  
> _


	5. Mit Schatten bedeckt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((This chapter heading is from a Subway to Sally song called_ Versteckt _(Hidden). It means_ Covered by shadows _. I cannot for the life of me figure out anything else.))_

It wasn’t the first time Adam broke into a police station, but it was certainly the most rural one. He had taken a bus back to Aberdeen and walked to the largest of the three police stations that remained in the city. The abduction had happened in Westhill, which did actually have a small station itself, but he doubted anything as major as an abduction would be handled there.

He had told the young man at the reception that he wanted to report a theft. The item he had then reported in a back room didn’t exist. It was a briefcase he described well enough. On his way out, he ducked into a toilet and from there into a vent.

He was barely in the cramped space when his infolink came alive. ‘Got anything, Jensen?’

He felt the urge to bang his head against the wall of the vent. ‘No, Pritchard. I have been here for all of ten minutes.’

‘Get a move on, then. I don’t want you arrested on the first day here.’

‘Thanks for your concern, Wendy.’

‘Yes. Of course you’d be juvenile enough to jump on that. Pritchard out.’

Adam shook his head. He should have asked how the hell Pritchard could contact him when the infolink had been dead before. But the answer was too obvious to ask. Pritchard had hacked his own augmentation and changed the base information so no-one could reach him. He kept the data of his contacts, however. Adam wondered who exactly that was. Him, obviously. Why, though? Had he already planned to lure him here when he’d fiddled with his own head? Or had the hacker had another reason not to erase his contact information?

‘This isn’t helping,’ he muttered into the silence and kept crawling on, wondering why he was even doing it. Francis had never said he’d pay him, and he’d told him before that they were even. Now the hacker was many things, but he wasn’t dishonest, so he wouldn’t decide that in fact Adam did still owe him. So what was it that had Adam crawl though this hole? Curiosity, probably. If he were a cat, he’d be dead already.

Adam came out a floor below from where he had started. He opened the vent carefully and glanced out. He was in a forsaken corridor. Nothing indicated any cameras here. Chances were, there weren’t any. He moved along slowly. The disadvantage of a small place was there were no signs telling him what was where. An office to his left was half open. He pushed the door inwards by another inch to get a look inside. It was as empty as the entire floor seemed to be. A pocket secretary was on a desk. He took it and cowered behind the desk to read it.

‘Pritchard,’ he subvocalized.

‘Got something?’

‘Maybe. There’s an archive, but apparently it’s not here. Can you find out where that archive would be?’

‘Unlikely. But maybe I can tell you where you can. Give me a moment.’

Adam sighed and returned to his vent. He was barely there when the link came back alive. ‘Jensen! I’ve got something. On your level there should be the office of one Ronald Dessent. He’s the commander of this station and unless I overestimate the local police, you’ll find what you need on his computer.’

‘Thanks.’ Adam left his vent again and moved on, a little more boldly than so far. There was no-one there. He ended up before the unlocked door he had searched for. Pressing himself against the wall, he pushed down the handle and nudged it with his foot. ‘How do you know where I am, even?’ he muttered into the infolink.

‘Because I can practically see through your eyes. Thank God you don’t have a tendency towards bloodshed.’

Francis couldn’t stomach gore. Adam had learned that on a couple of occasions where the hacker had witnessed it. ‘I’ll try not to rip any guts out.’ If no-one had reacted to a door opening all by itself, no-one would. ‘I’ll try and hack his computer.’

‘You don’t hack,’ Francis scoffed at him. ‘That’s like exploding a door and saying you picked the lock.’

‘I get results, don’t I?’

‘We’ll see. Get a move on. Pritchard out.’

Jensen rolled his eyes and stepped inside. The computer was turned off and took its sweet time to boot. Jensen looked for an escape should he need one but there was only one entrance to the room. ‘Come on,’ he told the device. It didn’t help. He took the time to close the door.

The computer, thank God, had little internal security except for a password he could easily bypass. And like Francis had predicted, the information was all there. Various links to external websites and a database of the police archive, including the address. He memorised it and was about to leave when the door opened.

For a split second the man who was entering – probably Dessent – must have seen Adam even though he had reacted fast and turned on his glass-shield cloaking. The officer’s eyes narrowed, he closed the door and drew a gun. ‘Anyone there?’ he asked in a low, deep voice.

Adam hardly allowed himself to breathe. The last thing he needed was to be seen. He crept to the wall next to the door, hoping the man would leave, but he didn’t seem to want to. He left him no choice. Adam inched closer and stood upright. In one fluid motion he grabbed the officer’s chin and crashed his head into the wall. He lowered the unconscious form gently to the ground and made sure he couldn’t to choke to death before he left.

He hadn’t been seen, but it had been a close call. The man at the front desk looked at Adam askance as he came out of the toilet a good half hour after he’d entered it. ‘Upset stomach,’ he muttered as he walked out. It was getting dark. He needed to get back to Peterculter. He needed to be mobile, because he wasn’t going to walk to the archive. And maybe he shouldn’t do any of this to begin with.


	6. Fighting the Green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((Chapter heading comes from a song of the same name by Deine Lakaien.))_

Frank slammed the door to his bedroom. The angry shout from downstairs came almost at once. He went down, two steps at the time. ‘What, sis?’ he asked. His tone and posture were a challenge. He was wired, it wasn’t her fault, but it needed out.

‘Oh, Lord. What happened?’

He’d expected her to fight back, but all she did was walk towards him and cup his cheek. He wanted to get angry at her and failed completely. ‘Damn you. You’ll always be four years old and I’ll never be able to yell at you.’

She snorted. ‘Good that I don’t have qualms yelling at you if you start bitching at me.’

‘Yeah. Unfair.’ He shook his head. ‘I can’t really talk about it, Abi. It’s just …’

‘Adam. He left for something you asked him to do, I gathered that much. And you’re worried now. Did you lose contact?’

‘No. If I lost contact that would very likely mean he’s dead.’ He swallowed. He really didn’t want to think about that.

‘Tell me, Frank. Do you hate him or love him? It has to be one of the two.’

‘What? I don’t hate Jensen.’ He watched her lips twitch and frowned. ‘I don’t love him either.’

‘Too little, too late. When’s he coming back?’

‘Couple of minutes. And don’t you dare.’

‘I wouldn’t. You’re an adult.’ She looked away. ‘Fabian called.’

Frank pushed Jensen and everything else firmly from his mind and schooled his expression into indifferent interest. The few times he’d seen Fabian, he’d liked him fine enough, but right now, he wanted to rip him to shreds. He’d told Abi nothing of the sort, of course. ‘And?’ he asked.

‘Well. He’s on his way here from Aberdeen as we speak.’ She swallowed. ‘He wants to … talk. I have no idea what this is going to be. I haven’t any idea how _I_ feel at this point. So … Frank, could you please … ah.’

‘Leave the house to you? Sure. I’ll go to Millicent’s Deals.’

‘You can drive there. You know where the key is.’

‘Thanks.’

The door opened and Adam Jensen came in with a blast of cold air.

‘You can turn right around,’ Frank told him. ‘We’re leaving.’

‘What?’

Frank looked at Abigail, Abigail nodded once, and he looked back at his ex-colleague. ‘I’ll tell you on the way.’

Ϡ

When Frank had finished relating Abigail’s troubles to Jensen – or a concise version of it – the other man was unusually quiet. ‘So now we have the questionable pleasure to spend the afternoon together,’ Frank said at last. ‘I’m going to a car dealer. I need a bike.’

‘You’re a freak.’

‘Fine.’

‘That’s all?’

Frank spared him a brief glance. ‘I’m not in to mood, Jensen. I want to kill that man. I want to scream at him that he had his chance and that he had time enough, and that he can’t just ignore that. But of course, I’m not going to do that, because it’s not my business and because I’m the last person who should give advice about that sort of thing at all.’ Frank waited for some wisecrack but it never came.

‘I don’t know, Pritchard.’ Jensen sighed. Jensen never sighed except with annoyance. ‘Just how would you feel if someone gives you an ultimatum? I know … or I think I might not follow it. Even if I wanted to. I wouldn’t put myself in a position to be pushed around. And if I come a day after the ultimatum is over and am refused, then it wouldn’t have worked anyway.’

Frank let that stew until they reached the car dealer. ‘That’s ridiculous, Jensen,’ he said finally. ‘Hell, I don’t even know what I want. For him to be there when we come back or not … I have no idea.’

The cold rain was gluing the loose strands of hair to his face. They stepped into the shop. A young woman with pink hair approached. She had an augmented hand with some tools on them. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Yes. I need a bike.’

‘And I need a car,’ Jensen added.

She grinned at them both. ‘Well, let’s take a look, then. Not shy of the water, strangers, are you?’

Ϡ

The thing Francis had picked had no right to be called a bike. He knew that the man was a tinkerer, but this monster looked like a lost cause. Well, he’d see in time. He himself had fallen head over feet for a dark green SUV. In Detroit he’d never seen the point, but somehow he had a feeling that he might leave the good roads eventually, and then a lowered sports-car wouldn’t do him any favours. The pink haired lady was delighted with Pritchard’s pick and told him she had everything he’d need to get the thing up and working. The loaded the rust heap into the SUV and were off again. ‘I suggest we go and grab a bite somewhere in Aberdeen. Preferably near to the police archives so I can get a look at the area.’ Frank stole a glance behind himself and Adam snorted. ‘No-one’s stealing that, Pritchard.’

‘Probably not. Let’s just put it in the garage to be sure. I won’t need a minute.’

He was indeed fast. When he came back, he’d tugged of his hairband, wet strands tucked behind his ears. ‘Well, let’s go,’ he said. They found a Chinese restaurant within sight of the archive. Adam took a cursory glance before they headed inside. The archive didn’t look special, but that didn’t have to mean anything.

‘Question, Pritchard. Why did the MANES say, ‘Welcome home,’ to me earlier?’

‘Ah. You noticed that.’ Francis shrugged. ‘Abi told it you’re a resident rather than a guest. That means you can come and go as you please until someone changes that setting. Someone being Abi.’

‘Just what can a person be to that AI?’

‘An intruder, tolerated, a guest, or a resident. It opens up wide to fire-fighters if there’s a fire and recognises the police. It can make calls to verify that they’re meant to be there and that their warrants are valid. It can also call assistance if they are corrupt and try to enter without a warrant.’

‘Impressive. In how many countries does this work?’

‘Oh God. I don’t even know. I’ve started with the States and the European Union, added the UK later, then Switzerland. I’ve got … let me think … Egypt, China, and Japan. Yes. That’s it.’ He shrugged. ‘If someone from, say, Sudan wanted to buy it, I’d have to check with their laws if an AI security is even allowed. Because some nations ban them. I’d add that too, so that someone from there who manages to get his hands on it wouldn’t be able to use it. It would be dead. Otherwise, I’d add all the data it needs. That isn’t hard to find, usually, and for those countries where it is difficult, I’d just need to put word out that Nucl3arSnake needs some legal info and wait a bit.’

‘You are good at what you’re doing, aren’t you? Why do you think this thing will sell?’

‘Because nothing like it exists.’ He leaned forwards. ‘There’s a few security AIs around. You met one in the Palisade Blade, I believe, but that one didn’t talk. For private people, these things are simply not affordable. This one will be. And the talking back can be turned off, but it’s just something that no-one’s done before. A security AI you can chat with. I’ll teach it to play chess and some other things, too. That’s not hard.’

‘For you maybe.’ Adam shook his head. ‘So. If I buy this thing and install it, can I lock you out?’

‘Ah! Important question.’ Francis actually smiled. ‘The answer is yes, you definitely can. What you can’t do is access the code itself, like, to lock out police permanently. If you do manage, the system wipes itself completely. At this point, I think even I couldn’t crack it. So if Abi decides to kick me out, there’s no way I can get back in.’

Their food came, taking up much of the space on their table. Adam generally tried not to notice the CASIE aug when he didn’t need it, but he had a hard time. Pritchard was nervous. Very much so, and somehow Adam doubted that had anything to do with his brother-in-law. He ignored it for now, but when the hacker nearly knocked his glass over, he decided he needed to say something. ‘Are you on the run?’ he tried a shot in the dark.

‘On the … what? No. Don’t be ridiculous.’

Adam put his cutlery down. ‘Look. I’m not trying to pry, in fact, am actively trying not to, but something’s eating you.’

‘Damn CASIE. Jensen, I …’ He put his chopsticks down, too. ‘I don’t know how to say this, but … when I was ill, my thoughts kept circling and circling and … Oh God.’

‘You were ill?’ He looked at the man again. He’d noticed that he was pale and gaunt, but he’d put that simply to the fact that he’d had a very hard time in Detroit. Now he found that he was concerned. ‘Are you … Pritchard, are you all right now?’

Francis watched him with a strange expression. Apparently he was an open book right now. ‘Never been healthier. Got myself checked out for everything that’s out there, while I was at it. But … it was a close call.’ He looked at his hands. ‘Being my reasonable self, I waited until I was very feverish and had to crawl to a hospital on all fours. Literally. I don’t even remember getting in. When I woke up I was so weak I couldn’t even lift a hand. I had that Spanish flu and it was almost too late. I could have died. And all I could think of while I lay there, hoping that I wasn’t going to, was how you cut me off when we last talked, how you obviously hate me so much you couldn’t wait to be rid of me.’

Adam opened his mouth and closed it. ‘I … Oh.’

‘Don’t get all high and mighty, Jensen. As I said, I was feverish.’

‘Of course.’ He licked his lips. ‘Still. Thanks for being honest. And I cut you off because I don’t know how to handle farewells.’ The next words didn’t come easy, but he felt an overwhelming need to say them. ‘I’m sorry, Pritchard.’

‘Ad… Jensen. I want to go back. I need to see if Abi is okay.’

Adam hadn’t missed Pritchard’s slip-up, but he’d ignore it. ‘Sure. Let’s see if everything’s all right.’ He smiled. ‘Do you want me to hold your brother-in-law so you can beat him, or do you want me to hold you so you can’t?’

Francis’s grave expression left him. ‘Huh. You know, I’m not going back to jail. So just in case, hold me.’

Adam left the credits for his food on the table and slipped his still wet cloak back on. ‘I’d like to do that,’ he said in an undertone. He saw Pritchard hesitate, but then he walked on as if he hadn’t heard. Well. He’d let him chew, for now.


	7. Moonlight on Maidenhair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Again I nod to Deine Lakaien. This time the song my chapter heading comes from is_ Nightmare _. It sounds like I feel when I look out of the window into the snow.  
>  And yes, I do know a car dealer that will bring your car to your house free of charge after a service or some such. It didn’t occur to me that this isn’t exactly common until later. Then again, I always say I live in a Gallic village for a reason. In fact, many reasons.  
> There’s a reference to the Cult of Personality quest in Mankind Divided in there. During that quest I already knew this fic would happen, that the quest would be mentioned, and in what way.))_

When they reached Abigail’s house again, Millicent or one of her employees had brought her car back and parked it in front of it. At first it had confused Adam that they had left it at the dealer, but apparently this was how it worked in the middle of nowhere. The key was in the letterbox and Francis brought it inside.

They ran into Fabian, who was about to leave. Francis snapped at him to wait, sealed the house by MANES, and rushed to his sister, while Adam tried to make awkward small talk with a complete stranger, who had just been locked in by his visibly angry in-law. He was a social worker, it turned out, and he seemed nice enough. He also seemed rather sad. When Francis returned, looking harassed but not too angry, and led the other man off by the elbow, Adam took the hint and retreated upstairs.

‘Welcome home, Adam,’ the MANES greeted him.

‘Hi,’ he said automatically. ‘What can you tell me about the Aberdeen police station? Do you know anything about its security?’

‘Only that it is not in the Lemures network.’

‘Dare I ask what that stands for?’

‘It is not an acronym. It is the shared network of all MANES instances worldwide.’

‘Oh God. Pritchard has created an AI monster with a hive mind.’

‘That is a crude way to say it and not entirely correct.’

‘How many … instances of you are out there?’

‘That information is classified and only known to the Creator.’

‘You’ve existed back in Detroit, haven’t you? In Francis’s apartment. It’s okay, he told me. You’re no longer running there, are you?’

‘An outdated version of this security system did exist there. It was turned off and improved since then.’

‘Did you already talk there?’

‘I was already a fully-fledged AI, capable of processing spoken commands and verbal output, but my programming did not include conversation beyond that which is necessary.’

‘Good.’ Adam had been wondering if Pritchard had been lonely enough to write a talking AI for himself. He was relieved that wasn’t the case. ‘So why did he write you this way here?’

‘I believe it was to provide a source of comfort to the owner of this house.’

‘He gave you his personality to cheer up Abigail. The man is full of surprises.’ He tilted his head. ‘Do you think he could hack you?’

‘Yes, if your question is if he could successfully attack an instance of the MANES that he does not own. He may not be able to cause anything other than a lockdown, however.’

‘Can anyone do that? Avoid a lockdown?’

‘According to the Creator, there are people who might.’

‘Well, good to know there’s a chance someone will rescue us while you sing _Daisy_.’ Adam sighed. ‘I’ll go look for information about the police archive’s security. I don’t suppose you can help me there?’

‘I was not programmed to report law infringements to the authorities, but I cannot commit them myself, either. Please do as you see fit. If you require assistance, maybe the Creator can provide it.’

‘We’ll see. Thanks, MANES.’

Ϡ

Frank had never fallen asleep quickly. Being in a foreign place didn’t make it easier. And what Adam had said at the restaurant – and by now his brain had processed that yes, he’d heard right – didn’t help either. Frustrated, Frank gave up and walked to the window. It was snowing. Hand hovering over the pack of cigarettes on the window sill, he watched, mesmerised. He opened the window and reached out, watching snowflakes melt on the back of his hand.

And for once it wasn’t the fact that Abi would strangle him that he grabbed the pack and walked outside after shutting the window again. It had been raining during the day, but now it had cooled down enough for thick snowflakes to slowly drift down from the sky.

It wasn’t as if it never snowed in Detroit, but there it took about five minutes for it to turn into a brown sludge. Here, however … Frank lit a cigarette and ambled through Abigail’s generous garden. He wondered what it would look like in the summer. He wondered if he’d be here to see it or if whatever circumstances chased him on and away.

The snow swallowed all sound, so Frank hadn’t heard Adam come out. He saw him leaning forwards on the gate when he was about to go back inside, staring out into the village that was only visible because of the snow casting back what little light was there. ‘Can’t sleep?’ Frank asked.

‘I was still awake. Voluntarily. Heard you walking around and decided to take a look at snow that’s actually white. Not that I didn’t have any in the GARM facility.’

Frank snorted. ‘I heard about that. You didn’t leave anything out in Prague, did you?’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Frank leaned on the fence next to Adam, close enough for their shoulders to touch. Adam didn’t move away. ‘You don’t remember, do you? You contacted me. Briefly. You weren’t exactly yourself, stammering about all-encompassing love and some great man called Richard.’

‘Oh God. Please tell me I didn’t say anything embarrassing.’

‘You didn’t say much that made sense at all, Jensen. I asked if you were drunk, you denied and told me you’d gone to see the great man Richard. I yelled at you to get the hell out, and apparently you did.’ Frank looked at him. ‘I didn’t make contact after that, it was pretty clear you weren’t in your right mind. Maybe I should have called back. Maybe I should have … I don’t even know.’

‘Is there something you’re trying to say, Francis?’ Adam looked at him. ‘I think so.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I hope so.’

Frank stood frozen on Adam’s side, staring at the snow on the other side of the fence. His heart was racing, thoughts he’d thought he’d killed long ago coming back up, only to be chased by the fears that had stifled them for so long. He was too broken, had been alone too long, had become too mistrusting, too frightened.

‘Francis. Tell me to back off and I will.’

Frank realised his left hand was locked around his arm so hard it hurt. ‘God,’ he choked out. He looked at Adam. ‘Fabian is staying,’ he said. He saw the disappointment on Adam’s face and went on talking. ‘It’s … I told Abi that if she thinks he’s sincere, it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit later than she wanted and … that I understand. Fabian gave me a sip from a freshly imported Ron Zacapa Centenario. That’s probably why I’m saying all this, because I’m a horrible light-weight. Seriously, two shots would all but knock me out. And he thanked me. Thanked me, Adam. For helping.’ Adam was watching him, disappointment giving way to mild confusion, which was much better. ‘What I’m saying is, maybe I’m not as … callous and deadened as I wanted to be.’ He stood straight and poked Adam in the chest with his forefinger. ‘And you have made me an offer in that restaurant. I’m collecting that right now. Go on.’

Adam didn’t miss a beat. Wordlessly, he pulled Frank into his arms and held him close. And whatever dark voice had told Frank that this would never be possible lapsed into silence and he let himself fall. He pressed his face into Adam’s neck and inhaled his scent like he’d wanted to for longer than he was prepared to admit, returned the embrace and felt free and confident and young.


	8. Too Light Anchor Searching for a Hold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((I believed that my obsession with Deine Lakaien was linked irrevocably to_ The Infernal Devices _, but somehow almost every time I need a chapter heading, one of their songs crawls from my unconscious. I blame Pritchard. Taken from_ Generators _.  
>  On a different note, I’m not sure I’m happy with this. But I’ve learned that sometimes I just have to get over myself and I believe this is one of those cases.))_

‘Jensen! It looks like there’s very little if any physical security,’ Francis’s voice came through the infolink the moment Adam exited his car near the police archive. He smiled. Apparently they weren’t acknowledging last night. Adam had no idea how long they’d stood there in the snow. Long enough for the cold to seep through their cloaks until Adam had decided he wasn’t going to be the reason why Francis got a cold after just resurfacing from the flu. ‘Are you even listening to me?’ the hacker asked.

‘Yes. Mostly. You said no physical security.’

‘I said little if any. Among other things. But I’ll say it again, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.’ The chiding didn’t have any of its usual venom. If anything, it sounded amused. ‘I was trying to tell you that I may be able to kill the system remotely, but I could be traceable.’

‘Don’t. I can handle it.’

‘I don’t doubt it. I’ll try and find out what is where. You get in. There’s a manned front desk, so if you can find an alternative route into the building while I look, it might be better.’

‘Thanks, Francis.’

There was a moment of silence. ‘No Problem. Pritchard, out.’

Adam took a walk around the building. There was a locked backdoor, the windows were barred, and fire escapes didn’t seem to be a thing here. To force it would no doubt alter the security to him, and if he did that, someone might come looking. He couldn’t be seen. ‘Pritchard, do you know if I can get in from the sewers?’

‘You can’t. You’ll have to think of something else. This isn’t the Palisade Blade.’

‘No. But I don’t want to be arrested here, either.’

‘If all else fails, you can flash your Interpol badge, you know. Just tell them you think it’s terrorism.’

‘I’d rather not. I’ll find some way.’ He halted before the locked door. ‘It’ll have to be the backdoor, then. But this doesn’t have a panel or a handle.’

‘Give me a moment.’

‘Pritchard, I don’t want you to risk exp…’

‘There. It’s open.’ Indeed, the door clicked open. ‘Go on, it’ll lock in a few seconds. Getting out this way shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘Thanks. Be careful, Francis.’

‘This was nothing, Jensen. It’s just an escape door with no feasible way to open it from outside. They don’t have these ladder things here, but evacuation routes tend to be outside security systems. For good reasons. But that means a security risk. Now you want to get to the first underground level. They keep anything they have on the open cases there. We want to know if they have a suspect or anything else.’

‘I know. I’ll let you know. Now get this: Jensen, out.’

Francis snorted before cutting the link.

Adam found himself in a corridor with the typical dim green signs pointing outside. The door had a very ordinary looking handle on this side and was connected to a terminal. Apparently, it only locked in case of an intruder alert.

The good thing about this entrance was that Adam was already at the stairs leading down. On the lower floor, there were lamps at the ceiling, but they weren’t lit. ‘Pritchard, are you there?’

‘No. I’m currently in Venice. It’s nice here. Lots of barges.’

‘They’re called gondolas.’

‘I know that, Jensen. What do you need?’

‘If I manage to turn the light on, will that trigger the alarm?’

‘Ah. No, but it will be noticed if anyone happens by. They’ll either turn the light back off or they’ll come looking. Is it completely dark or can you move safely? And don’t you see through solid pitch anyway?’

‘Point taken.’

‘I have a supply of proenergy bars here, Jensen, it’s not like you were ever shy of stealing mine from under my nose. Pritchard, out.’

The darkness had one advantage: It wasn’t hard to spot the cameras. The only promising place was a single large room with rows upon rows of shelves. They held folders, data storage devices, and of all things, sticky notes. They seemed to be ordered chronologically. ‘Pritchard, when do you think this case was first reported?’

‘Not too long ago. Ah … second week of November, I suppose. God. It really is dark in there.’

‘Yeah. Notice that, too, do you? I’ll let you know when I have something.’

The advantage of being in a relatively quiet city was that there was little here. A couple of pickpocketing reports, a burglary, one possible arson that involved a tumbledown shed, and one abduction in the first half of November. In Detroit he’d have had through a ridiculous amount of reports. The file Adam found held two data storage devices. One was labelled as suspects, the other had a sticky note attached to it that read _Related?_

‘Francis, I don’t think you approve of stealing storage devices, do you?’

‘Not if we can avoid it. I’d prefer to leave as little mess as possible.’ He was quiet for a minute. ‘This is … possibly problematic. There is one, I repeat, one useful computer in this building. That’s the central security. It’s guarded by the usual, cameras, turrets, one smaller bot that might be malfunctioning.’

‘I should be able to handle that.’

‘If this isn’t worth the effort, I suggest you bring the devices here, we copy everything, and you return them later.’

‘I’ll see. Where is the computer? Upstairs?’

‘No. Lowest floor, two further down.’

‘What _is_ upstairs?’

‘Physical evidence. And no, we’re not stealing that either. Pritchard, out.’

The bottom floor was indeed almost completely dark except for where the cameras were pointing. The small bot was wandering aimlessly. It looked as if it was indeed broken.

What was not broken were the cameras. They had the security room covered from all angles. Once again, Adam activated the glass shield. He’d need to be quick. He walked to the computer and tried to get it to work. ‘Don’t kill the system,’ he heard Francis. ‘We should try and leave no trace at all.’

‘I’m under a bit of time pressure here.’

‘I know. Listen to me. I’ll try and guide you. You’ll need to trust me, and you’ll need to react fast to everything I say. If we fail, run like hell. Or you just do what you do and we hope we never have to come back here, because they’ll likely upgrade security if you Rambo your way through the system.’

Adam thought for less than a second. ‘Go ahead, Francis. What do I do?’

Ϡ

It took four attempts and more energy than Adam knew he had. He felt ready to sleep through what remained of the year. He was about to tell Francis he was going to take the Rambo route after all, when he heard the hacker whooping on the other end and saw the screen go dark and come back alive with the controls ready for him to seize. Quickly, Adam turned off the cameras and let himself fall into the chair. ‘Never,’ he said, ‘make me do that again.’

‘Why? It worked!’ Francis still sounded horribly cheerful.

‘You’re not the one who almost drained all his resources.’

‘Well, at least you know what the difference between your and my version of hacking is. Or at least, you have some vague idea.’

‘That’s all this was, isn’t it?’

‘Mostly. But not only that. I need those two storage devices connected. I don’t suppose they have a huge amount of data on there so this shouldn’t take long. Yes, there they are. Just a moment.’

‘I’m in no hurry to get back on my feet. Take your time.’

‘Will you get out all right, Adam? Do you need help?’

Adam smiled. ‘I’m fine. But … good to know you’re not completely indifferent.’

The static told Adam that Francis was still there but apparently unsure what to say. ‘Of course I’m not indifferent. I … didn’t want to sound like that.’

Adam huffed. ‘Oh yes. That’s exactly how you wanted to sound. And you were starting to do a good job.’

‘I think we need to talk, Adam. Oh God, that came out wrong. I’m done copying. How long before you’re out of the building?’

‘Depends on whether or not I fall asleep here.’

‘Jensen, I’m serious. I want you to re-activate the security, but with a delay that’ll give you time to get out. It might be on full alert … after … Fuck!’

‘Pritchard, what?’

‘Get out now, Adam. Someone’s found out the system’s dead. Move! Leave the devices.’

‘No. Are you done with them?’

‘Yes, you can leave them.’

Adam considered it for a moment. Then he removed them. ‘I’m putting the security back online without the delay. I’ll have to cloak for one more second, but that’ll make this look more like a glitch and less like a break-in.’ He took a deep breath, activated his cloak and then the camera. Then he dashed out of its sight and made it back to the stairs.

The first thing he noticed one floor higher up was that the lights were on. Then he heard the voices. Apparently what physical security this place had was going to look for him. Adam made his decision fast. He darted up the stairs and into a crowded storage cupboard. He heard footsteps moving past him then. Someone was laughing. Apparently the guards didn’t really believe anything was amiss. That was a relief.

The floor where Adam had taken the storage devices from was as abandoned as before. But the panel at the escape door was active and locking it, and a guard was standing before it. He looked awfully bored, but he was there. Adam was trapped between the security downstairs and him. There was no way he could get close enough to incapacitate him unseen. ‘Francis, I may have to sit this out.’

‘Too dangerous. If they find something, anything, they’ll sweep the building.’

‘ _Sra_ _č_ _ka._ Suggestions, then?’

‘Just one. Sit tight, Adam, and cut out the Czech swearing, it impresses no-one.’ The infolink went dead. A moment later, the panel at the door crackled. The guard turned and looked at it. Closely. A blue arc came up between his head and the panel and he slumped forwards into the wall, face scraping down. The door clicked open. ‘Out,’ Pritchard said. Then, ‘Can you look if he’s … ah …’

Adam checked. The man had a pulse. ‘He’ll be fine.’ He slipped out of the door and closed it behind him. He tried to look nonchalant as he walked back to his car. Since no-one looked at him twice, he must be doing well. ‘What did you do?’

‘I did tell you that this panel isn’t part of the rest of the security? I could hack that remotely. And I got it to overload. I caused it to short-circuit, that opened the door. It should look like a malfunction.’

‘The terminal probably didn’t live to tell the tale.’

‘No.’ Francis hesitated. ‘Can you drive or should I pick you up? I’m sure Abi will lend me her car. I won’t forgive myself if you hit a tree and die.’

‘It’s less than half an hour, Francis, I can manage that. But thanks. I appreciate it.’

‘Be … be safe, Adam.’

Adam smiled, feeling warmer than he had any right to in the cold wind. ‘I will be.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((I suppose you learn the important words when you live in a foreign country long enough, no? Although the best part of the mess that was MD’s attempt at Slavic languages was the casual use of_ уёбок _, which is something that’ll get you kicked in the nuts if you try it in Russia.))_


	9. Strangling My Will

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Chapter heading taken from a line out of_ Lonely _by Deine Lakaien. Thanks, brain.))_

When Frank heard the car pull up outside, he tried to wait calmly until Adam came up. He managed for about as long as it took the other man to get out of the car. Cursing himself silently, Frank ran down the stairs and out of the door. He darted past and nearly into Fabian, muttered an apology, and halted outside. Adam approached, a minute smile tugging at his lips. When he was right in front of him, he retracted his eye-shields. ‘Something the matter, Francis?’

The other man grabbed him by the shoulders. ‘Where were you? You took ages!’

‘I decided that while I could make it back here, I might as well buy myself my own proenergy bars on the way. So I don’t have to steal yours, you know.’

‘I thought … God, Adam. You make my heart race worse than the flu did.’ He rubbed a hand over his face.

‘You could have just asked,’ Adam said.

‘I didn’t contact you because if you hadn’t answered …’ He fell silent, biting his lips.

Adam plucked his hands from his shoulders. ‘Let’s go inside, okay? You wanted to talk.’

Frank offered a curt nod. Adam followed him to the upstairs living room, where the hacker dropped on a chair and hid his face in his hands. ‘Adam … look. It’s like this. What happened yesterday … God, I’m bad at this.’ He looked up at him. ‘I enjoyed that. And I don’t regret it, not for a second. But I’m worried that I will. I’ve tried this before and it … just never worked out. I suppose something’s awfully wrong with me and you’ll realise that eventually and walk away. And I really don’t care to get burnt again.’ He bit his lip.

‘It’s not like we’ve only just met, Francis. I know you already, I’m not going to wake up one day and be shocked to discover that you have flaws. I must be a sucker for punishment because that isn’t putting me off in the slightest.’ Adam sat next to him. ‘So what is it you want?’

‘I want you to listen, Jensen.’ Frank stood and walked to the window. He needed to move, needed … he had no idea what. ‘Here’s what’s going to happen. You’ll run headfirst into this adventure, and after a few weeks you’ll leave, and I’ll collect the pieces of myself. Like always.’ He heard the scraping of Adam’s chair and the certainty that Adam walked away settled in his stomach like lead. Then he felt gentle hands on his upper arms, felt himself being turned around to face the other man.

Adam usually looked serious, but not like this. His voice was quiet when he spoke again, gentler than he had any right to sound, considering that he could punch through a solid wall. ‘Francis, what exactly happened? Can I do something that’ll help you trust me?’

Frank shook his head. A hurt expression flickered over Adam’s face, but he had it under control quickly. He was treating him like a cornered animal, and Frank wanted to hit him or kiss him for it, he wasn’t sure which. ‘Believe it or not, I’ve had relationships, Jensen. I’ve tried this, as I just told you. And everyone runs away from me eventually, even a guy I’d known for a longer time than you before getting involved. So it’s only logical that this has a lot more to do with me than with them. So, also logically, trust doesn’t even enter into the equation.’

‘Okay.’ Adam’s hands were still on him, travelling up and down his arms, soothing, or trying to. ‘We can debate the logic of that statement eventually. Or if we should use mathematical terms for relationships at all. For now, I’ll ask again: What do you want?’

‘What I want? Don’t you get it? I want a guarantee no-one can give me, Jensen.’

Adam let his hands fall at his side. ‘Well. You’re right, I can’t do that. But I think we’d stand a better chance than Megan and I ever did. Because you’re brutally honest for one thing. I can appreciate that, but I know not everyone does. I dig it. And there’s a lot about you that I can imagine would put other people off. I like that you still snark at me, even though you don’t hate my guts anymore. I like that you’re levelling with me rather than pretending to be all right. Hell, I even like your goddamn AI, Pritchard. So no, I really don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with you except maybe a tendency to surround yourself with people who’ll use you and drop you once they had their fill. I can tell you a thing or two about that.’ He stifled a yawn and shook himself. ‘I’ll need a bit of rest, Francis. Think about it. I really don’t think you’d regret it. Neither of us will.’

                                                                          Ϡ       

The soft knock on Adam’s door was enough to wake him from the light sleep he’d drifted into. Damn, he’d just wanted to close his eyes for a moment. ‘Come in,’ he called, sat up, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The door revealed Francis, looking rather anxious. ‘Sorry, Adam. I … ah. Just got a call. Marcus … my missing person … he’s back. As was to be expected, he has no memory, but with an aug. Hand. Right one.’ Francis had walked towards him, taking him in. Self-consciously, Adam ran a hand over his hair and tugged the cover up to expose somewhat less flesh, since he’d dressed down to his briefs. Suddenly Francis’s expression turned decisive, and he sat on Adam’s bed. ‘I suppose it’s still a bad thing and all that, but if you’d rather go back to Prague to sulk in your dusty apartment all by yourself …’ He swallowed. ‘What I’m saying is, I hope you’ll stay here, but I won’t judge you if you take to your heels after … well, before.’

Adam reached out and took one of Francis’s hands. He looked at the contrasting colours and wondered why the other man didn’t flinch away from his touch. ‘Maybe we can help your friend, Francis. We should go and see him.’

‘You’re making it rather hard to believe you’re going to hurt me.’

‘Good.’

‘Thanks, Adam.’ Francis’s free hand reached for Adam, and after a moment of hesitation he placed his fingertips on his chest. ‘Are you awake? Can I tell you what I found in those files you got us?’

Adam raised his eyebrows. ‘You’re dying to tell me, aren’t you?’

‘Well … yes.’ The fingertips were trembling slightly against Adam’s skin.

‘Spill.’ Adam hardly recognised his own voice. He wanted to pull Francis close to him, to kiss him, to … He pushed the thought far away. This wasn’t the time.

‘Well.’ Francis licked over his lips. He removed his hand from Adam’s chest with a visible effort and placed it on his arm instead, exerting gentle pressure on the polymer muscles. ‘Do you even feel that, Adam? I suppose you have to, you couldn’t use your arm if you didn’t feel where it is in relation to yourself and the room.’

‘I can feel all right, Francis. I feel you shaking. I feel that you’re warm.’

‘That’s the next part. I worked for Sarif for so long and never touched an augmented hand. I’m not big on touching, you know.’

‘Could’ve fooled me.’

Francis smiled. ‘Usually, I mean. But you’re all warm. Cooler than human skin, but not cold.’ His mouth was slightly open as he felt his way along Adam’s arm, up to his shoulder and to his collarbone.

‘Pritchard. Focus. Files. Abductions.’

‘Yes. Abductions.’ The hacker withdrew his hand and Adam missed it instantly. At least Francis’s other hand was still joined with Adam’s. ‘We have a list of all the related abductions, reaching back as far as 2028, and the fun part is, they didn’t start here but in the States. They have been few and far between, but there’s one guy who seems to remember being in Detroit of all places. I suppose we should chat with him. And I have found a former N-Pro Tech employee who might help us with Marcus. With his memories and some such. He’s actually a medical doctor, worked for L.I.M.B. before he went into production rather than maintenance.’

 ‘Okay,’ Adam said. ‘Who’s first?’

‘The doc, then my friend. I’m trying to contact the Detroit guy, I just hope he’s ready to talk to me.’

‘Make it a conference if he’s willing. I’m part of this, Francis.’

The hacker stood, breaking their physical contact completely. ‘I’ll have to reach him first.’ He walked to the door. ‘Get dressed, I’m going to cook and I could use help.’ He turned back to Adam, who’d already got out of bed. His gaze darted down for a moment before settling firmly on Adam’s eyes again. A smile played around his lips. ‘No need to advertise, Jensen. I’m starting to think I’m sold already. I just need to get used to it.’

Adam stretched ostentatiously, even though he wasn’t sure he felt quite as confident. He wasn’t smashing mirrors anymore, but he didn’t find himself remotely attractive. Not by a long shot. He heard a chuckle from Francis and saw him shake his head as he walked out of Adam’s bedroom. This could be going a lot worse.


	10. Writing on the Wall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((This chapter didn’t want to have a name. I went for this because it hit me out of no-where and I won’t come up with anything else any time soon.))_

‘The guy’s name is Doctor Jacob Soutar,’ Francis told Adam from the passenger seat. ‘Other than that, all I know about him is that he’s been all over the globe for his work. N-Pro Tech hired him as a researcher, much like your Megan.’

‘She’s not _my_ Megan by any stretch of the word, Francis.’

‘I … no. No, she’s not. Anyway, he travelled to all the important places. During the Incident, he was in Hengsha. He’s not augmented himself, so he wasn’t affected. Apparently he sat it out in a dumpster. He says himself he’s a bit paranoid, so please, do be patient with him.’

‘He knows we’re coming, right?’

‘Yes. You need to go right at that intersection.’

‘Where did you say we’re going?’

‘I didn’t. We’re going to Dundee. And yes, I know it’s going to take us one and a half hours to get there. He lives in Glasgow. That’s twice as far.’

‘How did you persuade him to meet us halfway?’

‘I didn’t need to. He doesn’t want us to meet him on his turf.’ Francis smirked. ‘He doesn’t realise that I know pretty much exactly where he lives.’

‘Imagine that, Pritchard, not everyone is a black hat.’

‘I’m not a black hat, Jensen. Not for a long time.’

Adam smiled. ‘If you say so. What’s all that stuff you’re carrying with you here?’

‘You call that a laptop, Jensen.’

‘There’s more than a laptop in there, Francis. You’ve got cameras in there.’

‘I may or may not have the necessary stuff for him to install the MANES.’

‘You’re not just giving that to him, are you?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Jensen. Of course not. But he mentioned that he’s not quite happy with the available security systems, and I said I have on to sell to him.’

‘Got that patent yet?’

‘On its way.’

‘And Marcus?’

‘Is in hospital. We’ll try to visit him tomorrow. Again, I suggest you flash your badge, maybe you feel less worried about it in a hospital than at a police station. Other than that, you’d have to CASIE your way in there. I doubt they’ll just let anyone through to him.’ Francis sat up straighter. ‘Oh, and the Detroit guy’s more than willing to talk to anyone who’ll listen to him. He’s not getting much compassion at home, so anyone who offers some support and maybe closure’s good.’ He lowered his voice. ‘This must be hard for you, Adam. You went through the same thing. These people, none of them wanted to be augmented, it was just done to them against their will.’

‘I’m fine, Francis. I hated this at first, but I’m used to it now. I can even face myself in the mirror without flinching.’

‘I don’t think you’ve got anything to flinch from, Adam. But I may be biased here. You need to get on the motorway now and stay on it until it says Dundee. Tell me when we’re there, I need to … you know. Do some thinking.’

Ϡ

Frank felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped. Adam was obviously trying not to grin. ‘Good morning, Francis. We’re within sight of Dundee.’

‘I wasn’t sleeping.’

‘Sure. You were thinking. I could hear you think very clearly.’

‘Don’t try to be funny, Jensen, you’re not succeeding.’ The problem was that Frank was smiling like a fool. ‘Drive towards the town centre, there’s a café called Belinda’s Chancery. We’re meeting him there.’

‘And I thought you’re paranoid.’

‘Well, you’re about to learn just how wrong you were about me.’

‘Maybe regarding paranoia. Not about the rest, Francis.’

Unable to help himself, Frank reached over and brushed his hand over Adam’s shoulder. ‘You’ll have to find a parking space here, we’ll have to walk a bit.’

‘How about that one?’ Adam asked, swerving into a free space.

‘Perfect. Congratulations on managing to park on an angled parking space.’

‘Yes, Pritchard, let’s hope I don’t accidentally hit the heap of rust you bought when we get home.’

‘Don’t you dare,’ Frank said.

Adam laughed while he got Francis’s equipment out of the trunk. ‘You used to be better at threatening me, you know.’

Despite himself, Frank smiled. ‘Don’t remind me.’ He led the way to the pedestrian area where they’d find the café. ‘I wanted to get you fired, you know.’

‘I know you didn’t want me hired.’

‘There were guys stealing neuropozyne.’

‘Ah, yes. You wrote to one person that you wanted to find evidence before I could or something. That was an attempt to get me fired?’

‘Not a very good one, I know. For what it’s worth, I’m glad I didn’t succeed.’ He looked around and snorted. ‘Now will you look at that?’ He pointed at the café. ‘If I run my finger down those windows, they’ll come away black.’

‘Yeah. Mine, too.’

Frank elbowed Adam. ‘Now listen. This needs a delicate touch.’

‘And I’m a bull in a china shop, is that what you’re saying?’

‘You have an aura that screams cop, Jensen, and I’m not sure that’s going to go down well. Let’s try and handle this with … Where are you going?’

‘Into the café, Pritchard. I’m not completely green, you know.’

Frank hurried after him. He found Soutar on a table in the darkest corner of the almost empty place. Adam had halted just inside the door. ‘Mistake,’ he said softly. ‘If you want to be secretive, meet someplace crowded.’

Frank rolled his eyes. He had to work on not looking too disapproving of the doctor himself. He was fidgety, his dark brown hair looked as if it hadn’t seen a brush in years, and his clothes were crinkled and stained. ‘Tell him that, why don’t you?’ He reached the small table. ‘Dr Soutar? I’m Frank Pritchard and this is Adam Jensen. We talked earlier.’ Soutar looked at them both and nodded quietly. ‘You said you could help me.’

‘You? No. But your friend. Maybe.’

‘With his memories, or with adjustment?’

‘Both.’ Soutar leaned close to them, closer than Frank would have preferred. ‘Is he still in hospital?’

‘Yes. They’re going to send him to a rehab centre in three days.’ Frank frowned. ‘There have been more victims, Doctor. What do you think is going on with them?’

‘What I think? I think someone is making a rather unethical experiment. Didn’t a couple of victims have augments no-one knew?’

‘Yes. One of them’s been worked out. It’s a kind of shock wave that knocks everyone out for a couple of minutes. Including the user.’

Adam looked at him. ‘You didn’t tell me that.’

‘I didn’t know until a couple of minutes before we left. The other’s still obscure. Now Marcus has an augmented hand, but … well. People are wondering if that’s all it is.’

‘They shouldn’t be wondering, they should keep him sedated!’ Soutar’s voice had risen very suddenly. He lowered it back to his almost whisper when he continued. ‘He could be very dangerous.’

‘Do you have any reason to think so?’ Adam asked.

‘Well. If you don’t know what it does, always assume it’s a weapon.’

Frank gave Adam a brief look and received a nod in return. It was probably better not to contradict. ‘Doctor Soutar, I can hardly kidnap Marcus from the hospital and drive him down here to work with you.’

‘No. Of course not. I will ask the rehab centre if I can work with him. I doubt they’ll refuse the help of someone who used to work for L.I.M.B.’

‘Why did we have to meet here?’ Adam asked. ‘If you plan to go to Aberdeen anyway, we could have talked there.’

‘I wanted to be certain you aren’t trying to … ah. I’ve been contacted before. By thugs. Multiple times. They wanted me to help them smuggle or to augment them …’

‘I can imagine,’ Frank said. ‘We’re from Detroit, both worked for Sarif Industries.’

‘Well, then you know the worst of it.’ Soutar looked defiant. ‘I had to be sure you’re who you say you are. Although you would be insane to use such big names for a con.’

‘Anything we can do in the meantime?’ Frank asked. ‘Any way we might be able to trigger a memory?’

‘If you were close, that alone might be enough.’ Soutar shook his head. ‘But … I don’t think so. I believe that the biochip is actively blocking the victims’ memories. This isn’t just trauma induced amnesia. Mark my words. This is bad. Very, very bad.’ Soutar clasped his twitching hands on the table. ‘Mr Jensen, you used to be with the police, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you talk to the investigators? Do they have suspects? What of the other victims?’

‘They don’t really have a suspect. They guessed at a modus operandi and from that they built a profile of the doer.’

‘But that’s worthless! All conjecture!’ Again, Soutar’s voice had suddenly risen. Frank wondered how long it would take before someone decided he was a menace and sent the cops to collect him.

‘Yes, at this point it’s all it is,’ Adam told him. He was completely unfazed. Frank wished he could say the same. Soutar made his skin crawl with his constant fiddling and his sudden outbursts. ‘The other victims … We know one we can reach in the United States, but the others are tough to find.’

‘And the last one? Anything peculiar about him? Was he involved with a pro- or anti-aug organisation?’

‘He was … _is_ a PI,’ Frank said. ‘I assumed that one of the earlier victims’ relatives asked him to look into the case, but I doubt that by now. The other victims … most of them are people no-one would miss. Prostitutes, gang bangers. I have no idea who put him on the case or if he stumbled across it.’

‘Or,’ Adam said slowly, ‘if he was an error.’

‘An error?’ Soutar asked.

‘Maybe he was investigating undercover in the underclass and doing too good a job.’

Both Soutar and Frank stared at him. ‘That happen often?’ Frank asked.

‘Undercover agents are a thing, yes.’

‘We might want to keep that in mind.’ Soutar said. He stood abruptly. ‘Excuse me gentlemen, we’ve been here long enough. I will contact you once I am in Aberdeen. Good day.’ He took a few quick steps away from them, halted, and returned. ‘Ah. You have something for me?’

‘Yes. Installation is very simple. The panels and cameras use wireless communication. All you have to do is let the MANES verify your identity in any way you see fit and it’ll be all yours. Tell it what you want it to do. If you have questions, feel free to contact me.’ Frank handed over the case Adam had carried to the café for him. ‘Payment as we agreed.’

‘Thank you. This will help a great deal.’ Soutar all but ran outside.

Frank watched him leave, then looked at Adam. ‘What the hell is wrong with that guy?’

Adam shook his head. ‘I’m not sure. But I don’t like him either.’

‘I’m afraid he’s the best we’ve got right now. Let’s get out of here.’

‘Isn’t it a little rude to leave without ordering anything?’

Frank made a face. ‘First off, no-one’s asked us. Second off, I wouldn’t want to put my lips on anything from behind that counter. Let’s go before I end up as antsy as Soutar.’

 

 


	11. Touch Your Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((Chapter heading is from the song _Midnight Sun_ by Deine Lakaien.))_

They reached Peterculter in the late afternoon because a blizzard had slowed them to a crawl and they’d decided to sit it out at a service area. When they finally did get back, Francis managed to establish a call with the victim in Detroit, where it would now be late in the morning. It wasn’t anywhere near as helpful as they’d hoped. The man was stone-drunk, and by the sound of him, that wasn’t unusual. He kept muttering about a monster that had come and snatched him while he was relieving himself in a dark alley. The so-called monster had knocked him out and dragged him off into a warehouse. He had no idea where it was and insisted that his abductor wasn’t human. They thanked him anyway and told him they’d come back to him if they needed something else before cutting the connection. Francis had walked outside wordlessly and Adam was still wondering if he should follow him.

After twenty minutes he decided that it was quite enough. The storm had calmed down, but there were still impressive amounts of snow falling. While Francis looked his normal healthy self, the mere thought that the man had almost died a very short time ago made Adam restless. Unable to stop himself, he walked downstairs.

At least it wasn’t hard to find him thanks to the footprints. Francis had walked through Abi’s garden, vaulted over the fence, and marched on to the Dee. He was perching at the side of the water, motionless, with snow gathering on his head. Adam crouched down beside him. ‘Are you all right, Francis?’

‘No.’ The hacker kept his gaze firmly on the water. ‘I’m worried, Adam. About Marcus. About this entire situation. The only sensible lead we had is a pisshead. All other victims will be tough to find. We have nothing. Nothing.’

Adam watched him. His face was expressionless, as if all this didn’t move him, but he wasn’t going to be fooled. ‘Do you want me to leave?’ he offered.

At last, Francis looked at him. After a moment he shook his head. ‘You’ve got no idea, Jensen.’ He let himself fall backwards into the snow and stared up into the sky. It had been dark all day, but by now the thick clouds threatened to swallow completely what little daylight remained.

‘Of what?’ Adam ventured when nothing else came.

Francis answered in a whisper, so low Adam wouldn’t have heard him if it weren’t for the silence surrounding them. ‘What you mean to me.’

Adam lowered himself into the snow, too. His cloak was keeping him warm enough for the moment. He clasped Francis’s hand in one of his and felt the other man intertwine their fingers. Adam turned his head to the side to watch Francis. ‘Will you tell me?’

The answer was a brief shake of Francis’s head. ‘I don’t think I can.’ He sat up and scowled but didn’t let go of Adam’s hand. ‘It’s cold.’

‘Yes, Pritchard. We call that winter.’

‘Huh. Sure this isn’t a plot by the Illuminati, Jensen? Some way to … achieve … heaven knows what?’

‘Very funny.’

‘Funny? Perish the thought! This is serious business! Seizing control of the world by freezing the population to death. No?’ Francis briefly squeezed Adam’s hand before he released it and got to his feet. Huffing, he brushed snow off of himself. ‘Great. Now I need to change.’

‘You did this to yourself, you know.’ Adam stood up, too. ‘As did I. Come on. Let’s go back.’

‘Not yet. I said I can’t tell you, Jensen. And I … really don’t know why, but if I say it, I fear that I’ll curse us somehow. I know that’s ridiculous but there it is.’ He looked at him. ‘But there’s something else. Something I can do.’ Francis plucked his gloves off his hands and stuffed them into a pocket of his coat. He placed both hands on Adam’s chest and looked up at him. ‘Hold still, you’ve got something on your face.’

‘For some mysterious reason I strongly suspect it might be snow.’

‘No. Let me …’ He leaned closer and up, and suddenly his lips were pressed against Adam’s. Adam couldn’t have kept his eyes open if his life depended on it. He wrapped his arms around Francis and kissed him back with all he had. He felt a soft probing tongue and opened up willingly, a sigh escaping him. Francis tasted better than anything else in the world, the slow, teasing caress of his tongue sliding over his lips sending shivers through Adam’s body that had nothing to do with the cold. Quite the contrary. Francis sucked briefly on his lower lip before pulling away. His cheeks were flushed dark pink, his lips red and swollen.

‘I think I’ll want that on my face,’ Adam managed.

Francis smirked. He kissed him again, briefly this time. ‘There’s something else. Something I need to say.’

‘Go on.’

‘I have revised my answer to the question what I want.’ He touched his lips to Adams and whispered against them. ‘I want my last breath to be filled with your scent. Think you can do that for me?’

Adam put his hands on Francis’s jaw, caressing him with his thumbs. ‘I think we’ll have to negotiate which one stays behind, but I agree with the implication, Francis.’ He pressed their foreheads together. ‘Let’s go back. It’s cold and it’s getting dark.’

‘You’re right. Also this entire kissing in the snow thing is horribly soppy.’

Adam couldn’t help smiling at Francis. ‘It was perfect, Francis. Everything about it was. But I’ve got one request.’

‘Yes?’

‘Whenever you feel ready to take the next step, please do it someplace warm. Otherwise this is going to become a bit awkward eventually.’

Francis stared at him for a moment, then his face lit up with a smile so honest and bright he looked years younger. ‘Cross my heart, Jensen.’


	12. Clawing Up My Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((This chapter heading was pilfered from the Lacuna Coil song_ Unspoken _. It is hereby the song I have looted the most for chapter headings. There’s at least one more line that will one day end up somewhere, I’m almost sure of it.))_

Adam was used to being stared at, for sure. He was a handsome man to begin with, and his augments were bound to draw attention. That, however, didn’t count as an argument here. Scotland as a refuge for augmented people remained an insider’s tip, so there weren’t more of them around. They were just not the red rag they’d become everywhere else. There was no segregation, no air of dread when a man with a metallic left hand entered a shop. Well. That probably did exist, but it wasn’t prevalent. So being stared at now, in a waiting area of the hospital, was something Frank wasn’t sure he could prepared.

Adam had done him the favour and indeed used his status as an Interpol agent to get permission to see Marcus. They hadn’t been questioned, the badge apparently enough to intimidate the poor fool at the front desk. They’d made it all the way to the station, where they’d finally been stopped by the head of the casualty ward, who had insisted on getting Marcus’s agreement to meet two perfect strangers. Of course, everyone was a stranger to Marcus, so even if Frank had said they knew each other, it wouldn’t have done anyone any good.

To Frank it felt as if they’d been waiting for hours when Adam leaned close to him. ‘Pritchard, if you keep staring at that spot on the wall you’re going to burn a hole in it.’

‘Well, people are staring a hole in our skulls, too. I find that a bit more disconcerting.’

‘Yes. Funny. Any idea why?’

Frank buried his face in his hands. ‘Honestly, Jensen, sometimes I wonder how you survive a normal day in your kind of work, being so oblivious to your surroundings.’

‘My surroundings? This is a hospital. A waiting room, to be precise. There’s a mercifully silent TV on the wall and a huge stash of newspapers, and people are staring at us instead.’

‘Jensen, did you even glance at the TV?’

‘No. I swear, Cassan’s face is making me sick.’

‘You’re not going to see Cassan. You’re going to see Dylan Ferry.’

‘Who?’

Frank snorted and smiled at Adam. ‘An actor. In a show I’m rather … ah … involved in.’

‘Oh God. I’m dating a celebrity.’ Francis shot him a dirty look that Adam ignored completely. ‘You know, people told me in Prague that I look like a guy from the TV? Except of course that he looks like a mix of the two of us.’

‘Well, since Picus seemed so fond of that ridiculous ex-cop stereotype, I decided to give them what they want. Where are you going Jensen?’

Adam had walked around their bench and taken a seat facing the TV rather than the opposite wall. ‘I’m going to watch this now.’

Frank felt a tight knot somewhere in his gut. ‘You’ve read my script, you have no need to do that, especially since this TV is, as you observed so acutely, silenced.’

‘I want to.’ A small smile was on Adam’s face. ‘Are you shy, Francis?’

‘Am I … Adam, it’s not a secret that this thing is mine, but I’d rather people don’t start staring more than they are already. We’re trying to … you know.’

‘To wait until someone has convinced Marcus that he really doesn’t want to see us.’ Adam raised his voice enough to be heard by everyone in their row of seats and behind them. ‘We’re not trying to hide our identities. And if we were, I think we’d be doing a horrible job, Pritchard.’

‘Please be a little quieter.’

Of course, he didn’t comply. ‘Why? If you hadn’t wanted me to know what you write you wouldn’t have sent me a print of your script to Prague. Signed in your own hand, no less.’ The smile on Adam’s face grew a bit wider. ‘Who knows, maybe that piece of paper is going to become very valuable.’

‘Ha, ha. Yes, Jensen, I’m shy. But not because of you. I don’t want attention. I never wanted attention. Please.’

And just like that, Adam relented. He reached out and brushed his knuckles over Frank’s cheek and lowered his voice again. ‘Okay.’ It was too late, of course. The staring had reached a peak.

‘Thanks,’ Frank said quietly. He’d meant it to sound sarcastic, but for some reason he didn’t quite succeed.

‘What’s the future of that series, anyway?’

‘I don’t know how I do it, but I still find the time to write. I’m back in contact with Picus, I wasn’t when I was sick, obviously, and they want more, if you can believe it.’

‘I’m glad. I know they refused you a couple of times.’

‘You hacked my computer, I know.’

‘I hope I didn’t do much damage.’

‘It was tolerable.’

‘Mr Jensen?’ the department head called. They both stood.

Adam grinned infuriatingly. ‘That would be me. What did Mr Dillinger say?’

‘He said he wants to talk to you. But I’d like a word with you first. Please come with me.’ They followed her to a small treatment room. It was empty, but she looked uneasy. ‘It’s like this. Mr Dillinger will be brought to rehab tomorrow in the afternoon. It’s only a week before Christmas and we want him transferred before that. It always gets crazy here during Christmas.’ She started pacing. ‘Anyway, he’s been trying to remember, but it is so strange. I don’t know how to describe it.’

‘As if someone or something doesn’t want him to remember anything,’ Frank offered.

The department head stopped and nodded to him. ‘Exactly! Our counsellor tried to give him a nudge, you know … Social Enhancer, and it seemed to work. Until he suddenly had a splitting headache and they had to stop. And when he’d rested, all his success was gone. He had no memory. We’ve been playing that game for a bit and by now he can’t be motivated anymore.’

‘Of course not,’ Adam said softly. ‘Every time he remembers, he’s in serious pain, so his brain tells him remembering is bad.’

‘We’ll try and talk to him. Carefully. Thanks for the heads-up. Where can we find him?’

‘Room 205. Please don’t vex him. What we’d need is someone who has experience with faulty biochips or something like that. They say they have someone for the rehab, all of a sudden, but still. Damn that Incident way back when. I wish we still had a proper L.I.M.B. clinic to send him to.’

‘Me too,’ Adam offered. ‘Thanks for the help.’

The doctor started to walk out, stopped abruptly, and turned to face them. She seemed to steel herself for something. Her eyes settled on Frank. ‘I couldn’t help noticing … I mean, I’ve … The porter announced you as Frank Pritchard?’

‘Yes, that’s me.’

‘I hear you have a security software. Could I arrange that you talk to our manager? We need one that’s better than the buggy stuff we’ve been running for the past three years.’

Frank nodded. ‘Sure. He can call me. I’d be happy to help.’

‘Thanks. And … This is going to sound weird, but … Can I have your autograph? My cousin will never believe me otherwise that you were here.’

Adam tried and failed to disguise a snort as a cough while heat crept up Frank’s cheeks. ‘I … oh. My God, sure. Why the hell not?’

Ϡ

Francis hesitated, his hand on the doorknob. Adam covered it with his own. ‘Wait. Do you want to do this alone, or do you wish me to go with you? Your call.’

‘If you leave me alone with this, I’m going to hit you.’

‘No need to hurt yourself. Let’s do this. You have a plan?’

Francis nodded. ‘I had another brief chat with Soutar, and he told me how to handle certain situations. Pain at the moment of recollection was one, so I should be good.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Here we go.’

Marcus watched them with wide eyes the moment the door opened. ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘You are Adam Jensen and Frank Pritchard, the doctor said.’

‘Yes. And you know me, Marcus.’ Francis’s voice shook slightly. ‘Do you remember me? At all?’

‘I … no … sorry. God. I don’t know anything.’

‘I would like to ask you a few questions,’ Francis continued. ‘If it hurts to answer, stop talking and I’ll guide your thoughts to something else. Okay?’

‘O-okay.’      

‘What’s your name?’

‘Marcus Dillinger, they tell me.’

‘Who is your mother?’

‘Miriam Dillinger.’

‘Your best friend growing up?’

Marcus shook his head.

Francis’s lips tightened, but other that he showed no reaction. Adam wondered when he’d learned to read him so well that he could see his pain so clearly. ‘His name is Robert Calvin. Does that ring a bell?’ Again, Marcus shook his head. ‘What would you expect a Robert Calvin to look like, Marcus?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Tall, dark.’

Francis smiled sadly. ‘Not quite. Let’s try something else. I’d like to know … what happened … ah, December 1773?’

‘Boston tea party.’

‘Are there non-local phenomena in quantum physics?’

‘Let me know if you find out.’

‘Can you explain Dijkstra’s algorithm to me?’

‘Shouldn’t that be the other way round?’

For a moment Francis’s face lit up. Then Marcus screwed up his face and let out a strangled groan.

Francis was at his side immediately. ‘Explain the difference between waves and particles to me, Marcus. Now. Ignore the pain, if you can.’

The other man started to talk, and after a few sentences, his face relaxed. Francis waved him away. ‘Thanks, that’ll do.’ He walked to the window and stared out for a few moments. ‘Did the psychologist ask you questions about general education or physics questions?’

‘Yes. And I can access that. I remember all of my science, but I just can’t remember anything personal.’

‘And when you do, like only just, it hurts. Is that right?’

‘Yes. Mr Pritchard … Frank … I feel that I know you. But when I think about it, I get this dull ache. And now … for a moment I knew who you are.’

‘And you were rewarded by severe pain. I’m sorry, I didn’t want that.’

‘I don’t want to remember if that’s what it takes.’

Francis sighed and walked towards Marcus. ‘Listen to me. I’m your friend. I have been for a long time. You … don’t know that, so you have no reason to trust me. But try. There’s going to be a doctor at the rehab clinic who has worked for L.I.M.B. and N-Pro Tech. Work with him. Trust him, even if he’s weird. Maybe he can figure this out. And when he has, we’ll go for a drink somewhere, I’ll make a complete fool of myself because I can’t hold my liquor, and you’ll go back to annoy your students with your ridiculous physics. Can you do that for me?’

Marcus shrugged, but he looked a little less dejected. ‘I’ll try. But … I just don’t want the pain to come back.’

Francis squeezed his shoulder. ‘We’re going to visit you at the clinic, if that’s all right.’

‘Sure. I don’t know who you are, not really. But you seem like someone I could like.’

The hacker smiled. ‘Well. Here’s hoping. Good bye, Marcus. See you soon.’


	13. Unknown Borders of Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Dare I say it? Chapter heading taken from the song_ The Lights of Our Street _by Deine Lakaien. And yeah. There’s that rating.  
>  Also while I did proofread, it’s midnight here and I don’t know how well my brain is still working. So yeah. There goes that.))_

Adam had never spent so much time in a kitchen before, let alone taken part in the preparation of a Christmas dinner. He’d also never been a great fan of Christmas. He wasn’t particularly religious, hadn’t grown up like that, and not actually having a family might have something to do with it, too. Not that he found he’d had it bad. But it just wasn’t a thing for him. Now if anyone had asked him what he expected Francis to make of Christmas, he’d have answered that he would likely shout ‘Humbug!’ at little boys.

The truth was, Francis had never seemed as relaxed as he did around his sister and his brother-in-law. Whatever anger he might have felt towards the man was gone. With good reason. Fabian, it seemed, had found his way home. He had explained that this year they were supposed to celebrate the holidays in Guatemala, but that he’d mucked that up. And their usual holiday crowd in Scotland simply hadn’t known they’d be here and had made other plans. For one, because it was an even numbered year, and for another, because Abigail hadn’t believed she’d be in the mood to celebrate anything and had never mentioned to them that she’d be here.

Dragica, Abigail’s best friend, had said she’d come. She had only a two-year-old and a middle-aged aunt up in the Highlands for relatives and didn’t care to be alone with her daughter. Now her aunt had spontaneously made it down the mountains and was staying for a few days. She might show up later in the evening, but for now, the four residents had the house and the dinner table for themselves. ‘There’s quite a bit of alcohol in that pudding, Adam, but not enough to zone out like that,’ Abigail said abruptly.

He smiled. ‘Sorry.’

‘He does that,’ Francis told her in a carrying whisper. ‘Too much social interaction. You know.’

‘Yes, I do, having grown up with you for a brother.’ She folded her hands behind her neck. ‘So. Did you show him the room, Frank?’

‘No,’ Francis said slowly. ‘Not quite yet, Abi.’

Adam looked from one to the other, then to Fabian who was smiling slightly. ‘Am I the only one who is completely in the dark here what you’re doing in there, Francis? Are you building a secret weapon to conquer the world?’ The upstairs den had been locked to Adam for a couple of days. He’d asked the MANES and received nothing but cryptic answers. Francis wasn’t being any more precise, but he had spent quite a bit of time in there.

‘ _He’s_ not building anything,’ Fabian said. ‘But yes, you’re the only one in the dark. Because Abigail is an excellent extortionist and Frank needed her help.’

‘You remember when I asked you to go to Aberdeen to pick up my replacement for one of the cameras, Adam?’ Abigail asked. ‘Well … I did need a replacement, but I used the time to pick up something for Frank here.’

‘Something a bit too delicate and too heavy to carry on foot,’ Fabian added. ‘The heavy part was where I came in.’

‘I want to see that room. Right now.’

‘Nothing threatening in there, dear,’ Abi said innocently. ‘No monsters in my house.’

‘Except the owner,’ Francis said softly, earning himself a whack on the arm. ‘Q.E.D.’

Abigail offered an exaggerated sigh. ‘Frank? Don’t be mean to Adam.’

‘Okay, okay. Do it.’

‘MANES?’

‘At your service Abigail.’

‘Please unlock all rooms for Adam.’

‘As you wish.’

Abigail stood. ‘Frank, show him. Don’t wait until tomorrow, we’re all adults here. Fabian, darling, I think we must.’

‘Must what?’ Adam asked. Apparently his slight alarm was visible, because both Abigail and Fabian laughed.

‘We’re going to church. Midnight mass. You can join us, if you want. Frank won’t, I know that much.’

‘I’ll pass,’ Adam answered.

Fabian stood and rubbed his hands together. ‘Well. We’ll be a while. There’s always punch outside afterwards, and we’re going to see if Dragica’s still awake so we can chat a bit. In other words, don’t wait up.’

Francis watched them go with a curious expression. When the door had closed behind them, he stood. ‘Adam, can that room wait a little?’

Adam shrugged. ‘Sure. I … ah … would like to tell you something anyway.’

‘That’ll have to wait, too.’ Francis stood and walked over to the window. There was a slight tremor in his hands. ‘I’ve got a reason why. Call me paranoid, if you must, but this has to be in that order.’

‘Should I be worried?’

Francis spun and faced him. ‘No,’ he said with so much conviction Adam actually believed him. Then Francis grinned. ‘Or maybe you should. About … you know. Other things. Depends totally on you.’

‘Okay. You’ve lost me.’

Francis sauntered back towards him. ‘Stand up, Jensen. I’d like to show you something I got while you were running errands for Abi. Not the room-thing. Something else. Come on.’

Ϡ

Frank felt his nerves calming down with every step on his way up. By the time they reached their floor, he was calm. It seemed, Adam noticed that, too. ‘Feeling better, here in the mountain air?’ he asked.

Frank grinned. ‘I just managed to remind myself that I’m not an adolescent but someone approaching antiquity.’

‘Yes. You could be my father, with the what? Two years you have on me.’

‘Exactly what I mean. So, my young friend, please follow me.’ He led the way into his bedroom and indicated a chair. ‘Have a seat.’

‘Now I’m worried.’

‘No need. First … I need to apologise. I asked a contact of mine to break into your apartment in Prague.’

Adam raised an eyebrow. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘You’ll see that soon enough. In the room we talked about. I don’t think you’ll be mad at me.’

‘I don’t think so, either. I’m just confused.’

‘Good!’ Frank grinned. ‘Question, Adam. Are you cold?’

‘What? It must have almost 80 degrees in here.’ Frank could practically watch the comprehension dawning on Adam’s face. ‘Oh. Oh!’ He licked his lips. ‘I … ah.’

‘Look, Adam. To use your words, tell me to back off, and I will.’

‘Don’t you dare.’

Frank smiled. He stood behind Adam’s chair and started to massage his shoulders. ‘I ask because this is the third time it’s me calling the shots.’

‘You have to be, Francis. I’m not the one who’s so hesitant.’ Adam looked around, eyes settling a foot next to where a MANES panel was hidden. ‘Can you tell that thing not to peep?’

Frank snorted. ‘It’s an AI, Jensen. It has no interest in peeping.’ He placed another chair opposite to Adam and sat down. ‘But yes. I can. MANES … cameras off for this room until further notice.’ He licked his lips and extended both hands. Adam took them. ‘Are you telling me you haven’t touched yourself since you came here? Because I have. Since that night at the Dee I could hardly sleep without thinking of you, wondering what your hands would feel like.’

‘Just my hands?’ Adam’s voice was husky even by his standards.

‘No, Adam, not exactly. So. Did you?’

‘You’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?’ Adam smirked at him. ‘The answer is yes. But not so that anyone could see, including your AI or myself.’

Frank’s eyes settled on their joint hands. ‘You really don’t like that body, do you?’

‘I … am used to it. I don’t feel that ripping out my limbs is a good option, far from it. I’m good, Francis.’

‘Okay. Because you’re not hiding under the covers from me.’ He stood and pulled a very compliant Adam up with him. ‘Come on, Adam. Let me see you.’

Silently and with a serious expression, Adam pulled off his shirt. Frank stared. He’d seen him topless before, once, but there had been an entire ocean between them at that time, and he hadn’t been able to take such a good look. ‘Your turn, Pritchard,’ Adam told him.

Frank sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and did as he was asked. ‘Next,’ he said.

Adam’s lips curled and he pulled off his trousers. This time, Frank didn’t force himself to keep his gaze on his eyes. Instead, he let it travel. He watched the movement of the polymer muscles, looked at the point where flesh met augment. His eyes settled at his crotch. Adam clicked his tongue, covered the distance between them, and hooked his thumbs into the hem of Frank’s jeans. ‘You’re not playing by the rules, Francis.’

‘I didn’t realise we had rules here.’ He took hold of Adam’s hands and moved them from the sides of his hip to his front. ‘Go on.’ He was already feeling rather uncomfortable in his trousers. Adam kissed him deeply while opening his fly. Instead of pulling the jeans down, he reached inside, drawing a groan from Francis. ‘My, aren’t we eager,’ Frank muttered against Adam’s mouth. ‘Got any particular plans?’

Adam kissed his way to Frank’s ears. ‘Yes.’ He did tug his jeans down now. ‘I want you to … uh.’ He pulled away enough to meet Frank’s eyes. ‘I’ve always wanted to bottom for someone. But I never trusted anyone quite enough. I trust you.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I do more than trust you, Francis.’

Frank forced the mental image that had formed away. ‘Adam, go on like that and I’ll come before anything actually happens.’ He swallowed heavily. ‘And yeah. I’d love to do that.’

‘I’ve … ah … stimulated myself before. I’m not going to flinch at a finger. Or … you know.’

‘Good. Before you ask, you’re not going to walk funny unless I do something fundamentally wrong. And I’ll do all I can to make this good for you. But still. Just … what girth have you had up there?’

Adam looked down between them and grinned. ‘Somewhere along those lines,’ he said, massaging Frank’s cock.

‘Good.’ He pulled Adam close to him, pressing their groins together. ‘So you’re telling me you wanted it so bad you shoved a dildo up your butt. Did you do that here, Jensen? Just one room down from mine?’

‘No.’ Adam’s arms had come around him, one hand at his neck, one in the small of his back. ‘Not here.’

‘Get on that bed, Jensen.’ He didn’t wait for him, pulled him with him and down onto the mattress. ‘I wanted to show you this.’ He leaned over and pulled a tube of lube from the drawer. ‘I was going to let you decide how we do this. I was actually quite sure you’d be a resolute top, and that would have been fine by me. But this is interesting.’

Adam plucked the tube out of Frank’s hand and squeezed some onto his hand.

Frank grinned. ‘I’d have done that, but sure, prepare yourself. I’ll watch.’

It was almost too much for Frank to even stroke himself while watching Adam as he lay on his side, his body twisted enough to let him reach his own entrance. He couldn’t help it. He had to touch him. After putting some lube on his own hands, Frank returned to massaging Adam’s erection in time with his own while he watched Adam’s fingers stretching him, teasing him open enough to allow the intrusion that would come. Before either of them could lose what little composure they still had, Frank caught his arm.  ‘That’ll do, trust me. Stay on your side. And communicate with me, Adam. I need to know if you’re okay.’

‘Will do. Francis, don’t keep me waiting.’

‘One second. More lube. There can’t be too much lube.’ He coated himself thoroughly and massaged a bit more into Adam’s hole before he positioned himself behind him, spooning him. ‘Ready, Adam?’

‘More than.’

Frank pressed his face against Adam’s shoulder while he slowly pushed inside. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes. Keep going.’                                                       

At this point, Frank wasn’t certain how he should have stopped himself. He couldn’t even formulate an answer. Instead, he put his hand around Adam as he pulled back out a little, slowly, gently. Adam was moving with him, moaning softly every time Frank was buried deep inside. Frank quietly thanked the powers that be that Adam had experimented on himself or this would have taken a lot more time.

‘Francis, don’t hold back.’ Adam all but gasped the words. ‘It’s not like I can carry on for a long time.’ Adam upped the pace for emphasis.

Frank pulled Adam’s hand off his sex and replaced it with his own. He heard Adam muttering something, but he was way too far gone to process what he said. All he knew was that Adam smelled like a God and that he couldn’t think of anything more perfect. He felt the other man pull away from him, but before he could say anything, Adam had pushed him on his back and straddled him. Frank’s eyes locked on Adam’s – no longer their natural colour but the yellowish green of the augments, but so beautiful, so caring – while Adam lowered himself onto him.

‘You’re rather quiet,’ Adam told him. ‘Seems I’ve found a way to shut you up.’

Frank reached up to run his hands down Adam’s chest. ‘Yeah, you think so?’ He grinned. ‘Think again.’ He locked his hands on Adam’s hip to stop his motions and thrust up into him. Adam’s eyes closed, releasing Frank’s and letting him look down between them. He was coated in lube and precum, and Adam’s testes were already taut against him. ‘Just how close are you?’ he managed to ask.

‘Close.’

‘I noticed that. Can you hold back?’

Adam’s eyes opened again. ‘I doubt it.’

‘Then don’t try. I’ll be with you.’ Adam twitched in answer and put his hand around his own member. ‘And look at me,’ Frank said.

‘Can’t. Oh God, Francis.’ Adam’s eyes closed again, and Frank felt him contract around him. The sensation caught him off guard and pulled him down into the abyss with Adam. Hands digging into hips, he spilled inside him, God-knows-what coming out of his mouth.

Frank’s mind reassembled itself slowly. Adam was lying half on top of, half next to him, still panting and sweaty. His fingers were travelling through Frank’s hair, and he honestly couldn’t say when or how he’d lost his hairband.

‘That,’ Adam said softly, ‘was perfect.’ He shifted, taking his weight off Francis, but he kept an arm around him. ‘And it means a lot to me that you trust me, Francis. I won’t hurt you.’

Frank reached for Adam’s head and massaged his scalp with his fingertips. ‘Tell me you’re not going to go to your own bedroom, Jensen.’ He continued quietly, almost in a whisper. ‘I for one hope you’re never going to leave.’

‘Stop being so insecure, Francis. You may not have spelled it out, but every word you said to me made it clear you want a relationship. We are on the same page.’

‘God, I’m a mess. I needed to hear that more than you know.’

‘I do know.’ Adam propped his head up and grinned. ‘You know what I’m glad about?’

‘Ah … no?’

‘That you didn’t have the gall to say “Pritchard, out” just now.’

For a moment, Frank simply stared at Adam. Then he broke into a fit of completely undignified laughter. He’d never felt better in his life.


	14. I'm What You Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((This chapter didn’t want a name, either. However, since I didn’t ask for its opinion, it got one anyway, pilfered from R.E.M., more precisely from_ You’re In The Air _. That’s a lot cornier than I wanted but it’s almost 2 am here and I have that song stuck in my head and can’t really get my brain to produce any other sensible output. Also the same is true for the entire chapter, so it’s not like I can win here anyway. Goodnight. I’m going to pass out. Right now.))_

Frank awoke in the middle of the night. The spot beside him was empty but warm. A door opened in the hall. He approached the panel and spoke to it in an undertone. ‘MANES, is Adam in the den?’

‘Yes, Creator.’

‘Thanks.’ For a moment, he’d been scared. ‘Wonder when it’ll get through that thick skull of mine that I don’t have to be.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Nothing. Go to sleep. And don’t answer that.’ Frank grabbed a dressing gown and followed Adam silently. He found him standing in the middle of the room, rooted to the spot. He was buck naked and gave Frank a wonderful opportunity to take all of him in. He felt a pang of anger towards Sarif for putting Adam through all the agony the unnecessary augments must have caused him. And while he wasn’t struggling anymore, he was far from being comfortable in his own skin and maybe still unsure if he was the same man he’d been before. No-one knew better than Frank that wanting to be okay didn’t make it so and that sometimes time alone wasn’t enough to heal.

Slowly, the augmented man walked to the desk at the far end. He supported himself from it and stared down at the things scattered on it. It would look random to anyone else, but to Adam it wouldn’t be.

His apartment in Detroit had been a horrible mess. The one in Prague was better, at least from what Frank had seen, but still. Adam had a tendency to drop what he didn’t need wherever he was standing. Frank had no delusions of changing him, and he didn’t even want to.

Now workspace was a different matter entirely. Frank had avoided Adam’s office at Sarif Industries like the plague. He could count the times he’d been inside it on the fingers of one hand. But he did know that it hadn’t been anywhere near as messy as Frank’s office, which had papers scattered everywhere. People had found that hilarious. The head of cyber security had his notes on paper. He had his reasons, the most prominent being that he was a tactile learner and writing helped there. He also enjoyed the feel of paper.

At any rate, the fact that Adam was a neat worker meant that for what Frank wanted to do, he’d needed help. Well. He’d have needed help anyway, because he could hardly have flown to Prague, grabbed the stuff, and made it back without anyone noticing. But what he had also asked his helper was to take photographs before packing it all neatly and safely, so he had a chance to arrange it as it had been laid out in its original place. That had proven hard to do, since Adam had apparently left for Peterculter in the middle of a project, which meant there had been a lot of either very similar or horribly tiny things laid out on that desk. That project had to be one hell of a complicated task.

But at the end of the day, Frank had done it. Now, the desk looked exactly as it had in Prague, with the notable exception of a framed picture of Adam’s dog Kubrick. Once his contact had mentioned a picture of a dog, he’d told him to send that, too.

Adam still stood at the desk as if he planned to turn into a statue. ‘I know you’re standing there,’ he said at last. ‘I heard you talking to your AI.’

‘You and your damn augments. Well, I was appreciating the view.’

Adam turned and looked at him. His face was relaxed, but there was something there, some emotion he tried to hold down. And damn, he was beautiful, augmented or not. There was no doubt that he was still a man, just a man, not a machine.

Frank swallowed, pushing the thought aside. ‘I … wanted you to feel a bit more at home here.’ He felt the insecurity come back with a vengeance and he couldn’t hold it down. Heat crept up his face and he felt naked, even though he was actually covered.

‘Come here, Francis.’ He walked towards the other man. Before he could say anything, he was pulled into an embrace. ‘What can I do? Is there anything?’

Frank sighed. ‘You’re doing a great job already, Adam.’ He pulled away a little. ‘Sorry. This isn’t your fault. It’s not fair.’

Adam shook his head and placed a finger on Frank’s lips. ‘Maybe not, but you’re totally worth it.’ He let his hands glide down Francis’s arms and pulled him closer – so close they were chest to chest, with only the thin fabric of Frank’s dressing gown between them. ‘Anyway to answer the question you didn’t ask, I felt a call of nature, and I thought while I’m up already I’d take a look in here. I was about to come back to bed immediately, but I was … a bit stunned.’

Frank turned in Adam’s embrace and picked up a cogwheel. ‘What is this going to be when it’s done, anyway?’

‘A clock.’

‘Really. I thought it was a dinosaur.’

‘It’s a table clock. A rather complicated one.’

‘No specifics, please.’

Adam chuckled. ‘You asked. Thanks, Francis, this isn’t anything I’d have expected and it’s great. I do realise that you took care to arrange everything the way it was. Literally everything. How d’you do that?’

‘I had a few detailed photos of your desk.’

‘You know, I’ve got something for you, too. I was wondering, because you don’t need anything. Then I remembered something about that script you sent me.’

Frank raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay?’

‘Apparently, you didn’t write it on a computer. Whyever that is. But I know you’re weird that way.’

‘You’re right, I had a typewriter in Detroit. That may seem unusual at first glance, but it has its advantages.’

‘Oh, I’d like to hear those. And while you’re at it, you can tell me what the point of an arch built of ancient monitors is.’

‘That … ah … was … um.’ Frank licked his lips. ‘They were in storage and no-one wanted them anyway, they were about to be thrown out. I wanted some decoration in my office.’

‘You were bored, Pritchard.’

‘Not all the time! I’m starting to think I just have bad taste. I must, seeing how we’re even having this conversation.’

‘Your insults used to be more convincing, you know.’

‘That might be because I was more convinced of them myself.’ Frank spread his arms. ‘Where are you going with this again? Because it’s still the middle of the night and you are stark naked and a bit of a distraction.’

‘Yes, of course. I had a point there.’ Frank had let himself be steered to Adam’s room. ‘I found this neat little store in Aberdeen while I fetched the camera for Abigail. They have antiquities of all sorts and trades, some broken, but most of them functional.’

Frank watched him approach a lumpy shape on the floor with a shirt thrown over it. It struck him what was coming and he grinned. ‘Jensen, you didn’t,’ he said quietly when Adam had pulled the shirt away, and crouched down beside him. ‘I was planning to hunt down a typewriter eventually. They offer a lot less distractions than a computer does, they’re perfect for legal documents and envelops and stuff. You know, even I can’t hack a typewriter. I also like the sound, and what with modern OCR, there’s not really a disadvantage when you have to send a digital copy …’ He trailed off and ran one hand over the keys. ‘That’s a good one, too, an Apex Culmen 24. And it’s easy to get ribbons for these. Did you know that?’

Adam gave him a lingering look. ‘I should say yes, but we both know that’s not true. I asked the salesclerk.’

Frank stood and put his hands on Adam’s sides, caressing him gently. ‘Thanks, Adam. This is brilliant.’

Adam pulled him flush against him and cupped his buttocks. ‘I’m glad. I wasn’t sure about the model because this one has no memory. But then I decided if you of all people go old school, I think you’d go all the way.’

‘You thought right.’ He leaned closer to Adam and planted a kiss on his cheek. ‘Come on, you. Let’s go to bed.’

‘Any chance you’re not talking about sleep?’

‘Only one way to find out, handsome.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((I love synonyms. Ignore me.))_


	15. Surface Ripples

The Skene Care Centre lay – as the name suggested – not inside Aberdeen even though it seemed to have the same management as the hospital there. This building was in one of the remotest places Adam had ever visited, never mind Francis, who had probably never left Detroit before running off to Scotland.

The Care Centre was a few minutes’ drive north of Peterculter. Officially, it belonged to a forgotten village called Kirkton of Skene. Perched right beside the Loch of Skene, it was an idyllic place, undisturbed by the busyness and noise of civilisation. Not quite within the Highlands, the landscape was already dominated by large hills all around. They would be a marvel in the summer.

According to the plaque at the entrance, the Westhill Care Centre had been built immediately after the Incident. It offered a convalescent home for those that had been injured during it. And true to the spirit of the country, it had united the people in a way most others failed. They had all come, the natches that had been hurt and needed physical therapy. Those that had chosen to have their augments removed because they couldn’t deal with the guilt. And of course the normal residents you got in a rehabilitation facilities: addicts, stroke patients, people recovering after injuries. The entire place radiated peace and it was hard to resist that aura.

Right now, it also radiated Christmas. The trees were decorated with fairy lights, there was a ridiculous snowman whose nose-carrot had been pulled out of the face and stuck into its middle instead, and a holographic Father Christmas was flickering next to the entrance.

Francis had got a call from Marcus on Boxing Day, asking them to visit soon. He refused to say why, but he’d agreed to meet the next day. And now … now they were waiting in the entrance hall while a nurse checked if the man actually wanted to see his visitors.

It took only a few minutes before Marcus came. He froze in the door, a warm coat thrown over a shoulder, and his eyes locked on Francis. Adam saw at once that he remembered him now. Marcus approached, looking somewhere between happy and wary. ‘Thanks,’ he said when he reached them. ‘Can we take a walk?’ He didn’t wait for an answer but moved on outside.

They walked in silence, away from the building to the edge of the Loch, until Francis’s patience reached its end. ‘Marcus, talk to us. Is something wrong?’

‘No. Yes.’ Marcus halted. He looked at them both, sizing Adam up in the process. ‘I remember you, Frank, and I know about Adam Jensen … I mean, who doesn’t? But I don’t _know_ him except from earlier at the hospital. Are you sure we can trust him?’

Francis nodded. ‘I trust Adam with my life.’

‘Okay.’ Marcus licked his lips. ‘I still don’t recall everything, but the thing is … I know a bit. Doctor Soutar’s a great guy, a bit strange at first, but he’s coming around, it seems.’

‘The place looks like it could have that effect,’ Adam offered.

‘Totally true.’ Marcus resumed his walk along the lake, the other two in his wake a step behind him. Adam took a moment to watch Francis and their eyes met. A small smile tugged at the hacker’s lips and he extended one hand a little. An invitation, obvious enough to be taken as such, small enough to pretend not to notice. Adam took Francis’s hand into his and was rewarded by that small smile becoming a lot more noticeable. They hadn’t discussed if what was between them was official. Adam had no problem with changing that. He knew what he felt, and he didn’t think that he had to hide it. ‘Soutar says,’ Marcus continued, ‘that the biochip they put in my head is blocking the memories. Part of the therapy feels like he’s tasering my head. It’s … exquisitely painful, but it seems to help.’

‘It doesn’t just feel like it,’ Francis said. ‘Well dosed electric shocks can help with a glitch in the biochip.’

‘Yeah. It does help. I’m also getting painkillers because some memories still hurt like hell. The thing is, what I do remember, it’s wrong, too. At least in part.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I remember being abducted by a monster.’ Adam and Francis exchanged a glance. ‘At least you’re not laughing.’

‘This isn’t the first time we hear this,’ Adam said. ‘We have another victim. He also claimed he was taken by a monster, but he was a drunkard. We didn’t really take him seriously.’

‘Well, you shouldn’t.’ Marcus stopped again and turned to face them again. ‘I know this is nonsense, but what I remember is a huge bird-thing, feathers and all, knocking me out and dragging me away.’

‘Do you believe someone dressed up as a monster?’ Francis asked. ‘Or did someone manipulate the memory with the biochip?’

‘Not sure, but I tend to think it’s the latter.’ Marcus lowered his voice. ‘That’s why you should take the next bit with a grain of salt. I think I knew where I was. But I can’t tell if that memory is real or a fake like my monster. There is a warehouse, just outside Aberdeen. It’s been abandoned for a while. It used to belong to N-Pro Tech, then to Tai Yong Medical. They took everything that was there and have left the building to the vultures.’

‘And someone took you there to augment you?’ Adam asked. ‘A warehouse is hardly a cleanroom.’

‘I don’t know. I remember stumbling out of it, but I don’t know what it’s like in there. Then I was in Aberdeen and taken to the hospital because I was bleeding … must have fallen and hit my head. I … I can’t remember that bit. Not at all. Sorry.’

‘You’ve helped us enormously, Marcus,’ Francis said. ‘Did you talk to Soutar about this?’

‘Yes, about all of it.’ Marcus shook his head. ‘He believes me. Not the monster part, obviously, but the rest. He suggested I talk to you, and he wants a word with you, too.’ He sighed. ‘I wanted to go out here to talk because he insisted that I tell no-one else, and I thought it’s safer here. Also I don’t want the other patients to know just how fucked up this is.’ He stared at his augmented hand with deep repulsion. ‘I want to rip that thing out.’

‘I’ve been there,’ Adam said. ‘It gets better. Trust me.’

‘Soutar’s been trying to find out if this is something more than what it looks like, but so far I don’t think he had much success. Maybe I’ll start shooting bullets out of my fingers tomorrow at breakfast. I just don’t trust this thing.’

‘Augs don’t kill people, people do,’ Francis said. ‘The Incident notwithstanding.’

‘But it did happen.’

‘It did, but it won’t ever again,’ Adam said firmly. ‘Listen, Marcus. You’re still the same man. You have a chip in your head and a hand that might reveal a stiletto or a screwdriver or hell, a spoon, for all we know. Let them do their job. Maybe you’ll be able to trigger whatever your aug can do, but it doesn’t just happen by accident. That’s not how this works.’

‘Aren’t you scared?’ Marcus asked. He gestured at their clasped hands. ‘I know what these can do, you and your augs have been on the news more times than I can count. Don’t you fear that one of those blades of yours will shoot out by accident and cut Frank open? How would you feel about that?’

Adam stared at the other man. ‘That … thought did occur to me.’ He saw and felt Francis tense at his side. He hadn’t said it, but the first night, he’d felt a flash of fear. It had passed quickly, however. ‘I’ve had the augs long enough to just shrug it off as the irrational fear it is.’ He looked at Francis. ‘I’m not afraid of hurting him against my will, him or anyone. I am the only one who controls what weapons I have. I’m not a tool, not a bot that can be controlled with a computer, and neither are you. What happened during the Incident was unique, and I know I just said that but I’ll repeat it: It’s not happening again. You’re not a hazard. Not any more than any other human being that can carry any kind of weapon.’

‘Have you spoken to the people at the Care Centre about your fears, Marcus?’ Francis asked.

‘Not yet.’ He swallowed. ‘But I will. It’s not going to go away by itself.’ His lower lips trembled. ‘I’d like to go back now. Please.’

Ϡ

The moment they stepped back into the entrance hall, they were cornered by a harassed-looking Doctor Soutar. ‘Mr Dillinger, you know you’re supposed to sign out if you leave the building,’ he said.

‘I’m sorry. I … forgot.’

‘You didn’t forget, you didn’t want anyone to know. But we’d be rather negligent if we didn’t notice our patients vanishing.’ He huffed. ‘Now please go and see Doctor Loss. She’s waiting.’ Marcus left hastily after hugging Francis briefly and shaking Adam’s hand. ‘Loss is his therapist,’ Soutar explained. ‘I need a coffee. What about you?’

‘Is it any good?’

‘This isn’t a hospital with sub-par food designed to keep people miserable,’ Soutar said. His fidgeting had decreased to a minimum, he seemed remarkably relaxed here. ‘Come on, it’s on me.’ He led them to a cafeteria, ordered three coffees, and they found a table in a corner. ‘Only a few words, I haven’t got all that much time. Did he tell you about his abduction?’

‘Yes,’ Francis said. ‘All he knows. Or … what he believes he knows.’

‘Ah. The monster. I have no idea what to make of that, yet, but I do think I’m getting what his hand can do.’ He looked around, checking if anyone was listening, but it didn’t seem so. ‘He has surgical instruments. A scalpel, a clamp, a goddamn retractor … only pretty basic stuff, but still. This is new.’

‘Is it functional?’ Adam asked. ‘As far as I know, there were some augments for the medical sector in development, but they never made it to production. They were either too dangerous, I mean, imagine a scalpel for a finger, or simply not worth the effort. How is this different?’

Soutar slowly shook his head. ‘Did I say this was sensible? I said it’s there. Regarding functionality, I don’t see the point putting them on a physicist of all people. But I suppose that whoever did this just wanted to try out if these augments could be controlled at all. I hope we’ll find out if he can activate them. I’ll see if I can work with one of the physiotherapists and him on that. If I had the equipment of a L.I.M.B. clinic … Well. We’ll have to make do, no use bemoaning the difficulties.’

‘Maybe,’ Francis said quietly, ‘we can find out if one of the major players was close to a breakthrough regarding surgical augments. I know that David did think loudly about such things, but he also said he wasn’t quite there yet. Maybe someone else was.’

‘And who?’ Adam asked.

‘Not Tai Yong, Jensen, or we’d be seeing them on the market rather than on the victim of a madman. No, there’s something weird going on here. And I plan to find out what that is and why.’

‘That makes that two of us,’ Soutar said. He rose. ‘I need to get back to work. Thank you for coming. I’ll contact you if I learn anything. And I sincerely hope you’ll do the same.’


	16. And I Believed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Chapter heading comes from the Within Temptation song_ The Promise _.))_

‘Tell me something,’ Adam said. Marcus had given Francis the address of the warehouse he’d been in, and they had all agreed not to waste more time but go there tonight. Soutar would wait for a call informing him what they had found later in the evening. At this point, they all felt that pooling their knowledge could only help, and if they were fast enough, maybe they could prevent further abductions. So Adam had dropped Francis off at his home and driven on straight to Aberdeen. ‘How does a guy go from criminal to physicist to PI?’ he asked on the way there.

‘The usual. Money. And he already was a physicist when he got arrested, but at it was tough for him to find a job.’

‘Okay, I get the theft-part. But PI?’

‘As far as I know, he pretty much sent job applications to all sorts of businesses. That one office got him the training he needed, and that was that.’ Francis fell silent for a moment. ‘It is also entirely possible that some hacker wiped his slate clean for anyone outside the US trying to get a character reference, as they would on a job that involves carrying a gun. I never asked beyond that. I was going through a tough spell at that time and pretty much secluded myself from most people.’

‘What happened?’

‘Not on infolink, Jensen. Are you there yet?’

‘In a moment. I can see the place from here.’ He parked at a nearby gas station and walked the rest. ‘Anything I should know?’

‘The place is abandoned. There shouldn’t be anything by means of security.’

Adam found a switch for the gate. It wasn’t even coded. The moment the gate slid up, he could hear a faint beeping. Lights, red and green, flashed in regular intervals along the walls. ‘Great,’ he said. ‘The entire place is rigged with mines.’

‘Well, you know the drill. Just be careful, I’d rather you come home in one piece.’

‘Are you just eating, Pritchard?’

‘Yes. Chocolate.’

‘I’m risking my neck here, and you …’

‘I’ll leave some for you. Please, do try to focus. And tell me when you’re done. If you don’t, I’m sending an ambulance in five minutes.’

‘If I get this wrong, I won’t need an ambulance.’ Adam smiled to himself as he stepped inside slowly. He had the necessary training for disarming explosives and Francis knew that. It didn’t take him five minutes. ‘All done, Pritchard. Not even my hair got singed.’

‘Oh, goodie.’ The intentional swagger in Francis’s tone didn’t quite hide his relief. ‘Now all you need to do is find a bird costume and you’re good to go.’

‘I doubt I’ll find anything of the sort.’ Adam looked around. The walls were lined with rows of shelves around the wide empty space at the centre. All were empty. ‘I doubt that Markus was operated on here. It’s dirty, he’d be dead if they’d done that.’ Adam sniffed. ‘And it stinks of death. This isn’t good.’

‘There could be another room.’

‘There’s always another room, Pritchard.’ Adam took the time to walk to all the corners of the place, making sure he didn’t miss something, anything. There was indeed a door on one side and a small room behind it. It had two holographic display tables. Curious, Adam turned them on. One simply showed the warehouse. The hologram revealed a second floor, reached by an elevator on the outside. On the other display, drawn in faint blue lines, the three dimensional image of a human-avian hybrid flickered to life. ‘Now would you look at that?’

‘I see it. Interesting. It confirms Marcus’s suspicion that someone messed with his memory.’

‘About the bird for sure, maybe about this place, too.’

‘Jensen, I need to cut the link for a moment. I’m getting a call from Soutar. I’ll get back to you.’

‘All right.’ The material lift at the back of the warehouse was little more than a rickety platform. At least it was functional, carrying Adam up in a stuttering ascent. Inside, someone had made a great effort to modify the building.

The entire contraption, Adam suspected, had been added by whoever had used the warehouse after Tai Yong had abandoned it.

They had clearly added the second floor. Adam was pretty sure it hadn’t been approved by a structural engineer and decided to tread carefully. The room the lift led up to was a long corridor. The rest of the building’s outline was behind a wall with no visible door. Adam would take a closer look later. Also, the room upstairs was low, just high enough for Adam not to bump his head if he bounced. The not-quite-two-metre reduction of height wasn’t too noticeable from below, what with the warehouse being tall enough to store stacked cargo containers.

Downstairs, the light from the setting sun had been almost too vague for a normal person to see. Up here, the sun was directly in front of one of the two windows placed at either end of the long room, casting the place in a ruddy glow. It could have been idyllic, in a wild, forsaken kind of way. There were scattered papers, a desk, a cupboard, and a lot of dust. Adam gave the rest of the hall a cursory glance before taking a closer look at the furnished corner.

If there had been a computer, someone had removed it. The papers were covered in small script. One of them struck Adam’s eye. It had code on it. He couldn’t tell what it did, but he knew the hand. ‘Francis?’ he asked into the infolink.

‘Adam.’ Francis sounded off.

Adam frowned at the paper in his hand. ‘Are you all right?’

‘No. Later. What is it?’

‘Do you recognise this?’

‘That’s mine. What is it doing there?’

‘I was going to ask you that.’ Adam opened the cupboard. Inside it was a small handheld computer, an e-book with an exchange between Francis and David Sarif, various types of software Adam knew he’d seen in Francis’s office.

‘I do realise what this looks like,’ the hacker said quietly.

Adam was about to reply when he heard a car brake hastily outside on the gravel. He made his decision within a split second. ‘Someone’s coming. I’m going to torch this place.’

‘No!’ Francis all but shouted. ‘There may be something valuable. Get out.’

Adam had rushed to a window and looked down. ‘Damn it. This is the police, they’re going to be led straight to you.’

‘Leave everything as it is and get out, Jensen. If you don’t interfere, whoever your doer is will feel more confident if you let them take his bait. Just leave. I need to ask you to do something.’

Adam hesitated for a few seconds. He decided at least to hold on to the handheld device. ‘All right. Hell, I hope you know what you’re doing.’ He took the direct path out of the far window, the Icarus Landing System bringing him to the ground safely and not within sight of the police. ‘Francis, I’m out and on the way to the car. What do you need?’

‘I … am sorry, but I need you to drive back to Skene.’

‘Are you kidding me?’

‘Jensen, Marcus has been killed and Soutar’s got whacked on the head so hard he has a concussion. He won’t talk except face to face, he’s in full paranoia mode, and we need to speak to him.’

Adam almost tripped over his own feet. ‘What? We were there only … what was that, less than an hour ago! How can Marcus have been killed?’

‘Just go there, Jensen. Please.’

‘Francis, be careful. Tell your MANES not to let anyone that isn’t you guys near the house.’

‘I’ll be safe, Adam.’ There was a brief pause. ‘You don’t think …’

‘No.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know what’s going on here, but someone is trying to frame you, and since I left everything, they’re going to succeed for the moment. But I don’t believe for a second that you’re involved in this.’

‘Thanks, Jensen. That means a lot. Pritchard out.’


	17. Garlands for the Grave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Chapter heading is taken from the Delain song_ Sever _. This one was a bitch to write, and to a point the next will be, too.  
>  Do you guys know _Dragon Age _? Soutar has the voice and manner of speech of the mad hermit in my ears. The same VA was also the Architect, I just found out. Fascinating.))_

When Adam pulled up at the Skene Care Centre, the police were already there. Adam got as far as the door. ‘Sorry, you can’t go in right now.’ The policeman was slightly green in the face and awfully young.

‘I’m here to see Doctor Soutar,’ Adam explained. ‘He asked me to come.’

‘Doctor Soutar?’ The man licked his lips. ‘He’s not supposed to be asking people over, he’s supposed to get himself into a bleeding ambulance.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Sorry.’

‘This your first operation?’ Adam produced his Interpol badge. ‘Trust me, I’ve been there.’

‘Sir I need to verify …’

‘Verify away.’ He used the time it would take to look if there was anything suspicious visible outside. Of course there wasn’t, but at least he didn’t make the poor green guy even more nervous than he was already by standing there, twiddling his thumbs. When he returned, a not quite so green guy was with him. ‘Have you verified that I am indeed who I said I was?’

‘Yes,’ the older man said, arms folded, stance screaming defiance. ‘Webster’s the name. And you’re with anti terrorism, it seems. This isn’t terrorism, and we don’t need Scotland to follow into the rest of the world’s collective panic attack.’

‘I couldn’t agree more, seeing how it looks like I’ll be living here,’ Adam told him. ‘I need to talk to Doctor Soutar. He asked for me.’

‘He asked for you, true. The fool is supposed to be lying down with his injury. And I doubt you’ll be happy with him.’

‘I doubt that, too, funnily enough.’

‘This is my investigation, not yours.’

‘I know, sir. I won’t interfere, I just want to talk to the man.’

Webster huffed. ‘Fine, then. Go. Don’t touch anything.’

Adam was barely inside when he was rushed by Soutar. ‘Mr Jensen, oh thank God you are here.’ The doctor had a bandage on his head, blood leaking through it at the temple. ‘I … ah … have to sit down. I _need_ to speak with you, four eyes … These idiots, they’ll … oh God.’

‘Doctor, calm down.’ Adam followed the flustered man through the corridors, past confused patients into an office.

The frightened man locked the door with shaking hands. ‘Look … This is so strange. I was with him … with Marcus. We were talking, he told me … it’s impossible, but. Um.’

‘Doctor Soutar. Tell me. We’ll work out what’s possible and what isn’t then.’

‘No. No, I don’t think so. I’ve got a recording.’ He produced a storage disk. ‘One moment … Here it comes.’

Marcus’s voice, Adam found immediately, sounded strange. He talked about the warehouse again, about being brought there by a monster. But his tone … it was monotonous, flat even. ‘He sounds odd,’ Adam gave voice to his thought.

Soutar nodded. ‘Yes, doesn’t he? He’s been like this all day. Almost apathetic.’

‘Marcus, please try once more for me,’ Doctor Soutar said on the recording. ‘You worked on the technique with Loss. Think of the monster. Close your eyes.’

‘It’s no use.’

‘Try.’

‘I am … oh. Oh!’

‘Do you remember something? Are you in pain?’

‘It can’t be.’ There was the sound of a chair scraping over the floor. ‘It’s just as wrong as the monster, it’s not real.’ The panic in Marcus’s voice was painful and in stark contrast to his dull tone before. ‘It hurts to … but … oh. It … I remember, God, I remember Frank. Frank Pritchard. My friend.’

Soutar’s voice was hushed. ‘Are you certain, Marcus?’

‘I’m … I’m.’ A pause. ‘Yes.’ That last word was spoken firmly. There was another moment’s silence, then a wail erupted from the recording, inhuman, agonised.

Soutar halted the recording. ‘You’re not going to get much more than this, except me getting whacked on the head. Marcus died quietly. Right after his revelation, he attacked me, slammed my head into the desk. I didn’t expect it at all. When I came to, he was already dead. Strangled. By an augmented hand.’ He lowered his voice. ‘His own, it must have been.’

For the second time that day, Adam asked himself if he could imagine Francis doing something of the sort. For the second time, the answer was a clear and resounding no. ‘He didn’t do this,’ Adam said. ‘There is no way Francis would do this.’

Soutar licked his lips, fingers playing with the data disk he’d retrieved again. In his fear, he dropped it and picked it up again. ‘I understand,’ he said. ‘You two seem close …’

‘That isn’t it,’ Adam said. ‘I have known this man for years, and we weren’t always on friendly terms. But I was once a cop, and I know a little bit about how people work. Francis isn’t capable of violence. He isn’t even capable of witnessing it. I’ve heard him on the infolink when I told him people had died. I heard him lose it when he watched a man being shot in the gut. He cannot have done this. He is literally unable to.’

‘He wasn’t here, could’ve placed a bug in Marcus’s chip …’

‘Someone did, that’s for sure,’ Adam said. ‘But it wasn’t him. It was whoever did the operation. Francis has neither the know-how to augment someone, nor the nerve to cut a man’s hand off.’

‘I need to give this to the police. You know that.’

For a moment, Adam considered stealing the disk and knocking Soutar out. It took a real effort not to. He remembered Francis insisting he leave the evidence at the warehouse alone and made up his mind. ‘I know,’ he said at last. ‘Thanks for the heads-up.’ He was on his way out when he had an idea. ‘Do you believe the police will let me see the body?’

‘No … but I don’t think they’re exactly … uh … guarding him.’

‘Where would he be?’

‘Hospital. From here … go left, the stairs up one floor, and into the first room on your right. Operation theatre.’

Ϡ

The body didn’t tell much of a story. The strangulation marks did correspond with his augmented hand. Adam thought of the scalpel inside the augment, of the equipment here, and that he didn’t think he’d been seen coming here. He could remove the biochip, take it with him, find out what was wrong. But he had entered the Care Centre through the front door, surely he’d be questioned, and he didn’t have the time for that. Cursing under his breath, Adam stepped out of the otherwise deserted operating theatre. It had been the right choice. Webster was on his way to intercept him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing here?’

Adam gestured behind himself. ‘Marcus … I knew him. I wanted to say my farewell. I didn’t touch anything.’

The officer huffed. ‘Fine. Look, Jensen, I understand that this is all very tragic, but you need to let us do our work.’

Adam nodded. ‘I will, don’t worry. But I have a suggestion. Take a look at his biochip. Someone’s messed with it, I don’t know who or how, but he wasn’t entirely sane. He kept saying that a birdlike monster took him.’

‘Oh dear. Psychosis, do you think?’

Adam didn’t believe that for a second. The attack on Soutar and the forced suicide hadn’t been random. He’d been too close to regain control of himself, and whoever had augmented him must have been monitoring him. They had then removed him as a threat and left Soutar behind as a witness pointing to an innocent man. But if Adam told this officer any of that, he’d find himself questioned, too. There was only one acceptable answer. ‘Probably. Maybe even a form of DDS, I don’t know. But I believe that this is important.’

‘I … suppose you may have more experience than I regarding freak crimes. I’ll see that it’s looked into. This has to end.’

Adam hurried back outside, checked, not for the first time, if he still had the device from the warehouse on him, and connected it to the car’s computer. At first, there didn’t seem to be much at all, like an audio file that belonged to a surveillance camera: minor noise, occasional indistinct sounds, but little more. He jumped forwards, little by little. It couldn’t take forever, the device didn’t have much space. When he heard footsteps, Adam started to listen again. At first, there was only the sound of someone moving around. Then a voice, a female, muffled, maybe gagged. Adam turned up the volume and was rewarded by an ear-splitting scream, followed by a smack. A hiss, voice indistinguishable; a soft plea and another smack; and then words, the voice familiar, horribly familiar in Adam’s ears. ‘Stop whining. At least you’re not the first I’m doing this with, so you might even survive.’ Footsteps again, and then the voice, Francis’s voice that Adam had come to rely on and trust, continued, close to the recording device. ‘Not that it matters. You won’t be missed. And now, lights out for you.’ And with a click, the recording ended, leaving Adam frozen in the front seat while the world collapsed.


	18. Sicher nicht das Paradies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((This chapter heading is taken from the song_ Schwarz _(_ Black _) by ASP. The translation would be_ Definitely not paradise _. I had it before the chapter. I also have a (likely) chapter heading for the final or the penultimate chapter. Which might be three or nine chapters away, I have no idea.))_

Later, Adam didn’t know how long he’d sat in that car, numb and immobile. He proceeded to listen to the recording again and again. He couldn’t find signs of tempering with his ears alone, but what with the background noise that wasn’t saying much. He tried contacting Francis with the infolink. There was no answer. Forcing himself into action, Adam unplugged the recording. For a moment he contemplated driving over it, but then he decided to keep it. This was a forgery and it might help them find the real culprit.

On the way back to Peterculter, Adam tried to contact Francis’s infolink. He didn’t get an answer and Adam wasn’t trying again. He’d need space. He’d lost a friend, after all. Somehow, Adam never doubted that when he reached Abigail’s house, he’d go inside, find Francis upstairs, and tell him that they’d figure this out somehow. It would have been too easy. Instead, he found Abigail thrusting the door open as soon as he arrived. Her eyes were red, her hands shaking. ‘Oh, God Adam.’ She all but pulled him inside. ‘I thought they’d taken you, too.’

Adam stared at her. ‘Taken me? Who has been taken?’

‘Frank.’ She sniffed. ‘I’ve called my lawyer, but …’

‘Wait. Who took him where? Why did you let them in?’

‘The police, Adam. I told the computer to lock them out, but Frank said it wasn’t designed to keep law enforcement out and he just went with them.’ She took a steadying breath. ‘He said it’s going to be okay, but they’re charging him with murder, it seems, and I have to ask my lawyer if we can bail him out.’

‘There’s no bail for murder,’ Adam said. The numbness had returned with full force. ‘And I don’t get how they can charge him with it. Marcus’s death is a bit of a mystery.’ Even if they had been so fast to process Soutar’s tape, the thing only claimed that Francis had abducted him. This wasn’t enough to charge him with murder.

‘You … ought to look at this. It’s on the news.’

Adam followed Abigail into her kitchen. His gaze immediately went to the TV. ‘Oh my God,’ was all he managed. Either a reporter had followed the police into the warehouse, or their own footage had been leaked, because there was no way this was supposed to be seen by the public at this point and certainly not so explicitly. Adam couldn’t hear anything past the rushing sound in his ears, but the images were clear. A hidden door had been opened on the second floor, and someone with a handheld camera was moving through it. There was an operating table and various equipment. There was a cut to the camera approaching another door on the far end of the room. It swung inwards, revealing a pile of corpses in various states of decay. Some had augments, some had only missing limbs, but as far as one could see, some were so rotten that it was hard to tell. Adam remembered the stench when he had been there. This door had to be very tight, given how the bodies looked and how faint the smell had been. Noticeable, but the person with the camera had to be wearing some sort of mask or he’d be gagging.

Adam turned away from the TV and let himself fall on a chair. ‘Why?’

Abigail had turned the TV off and sat beside him. ‘Failed attempts, they said. People who either died on that table or … people he disposed of.’ She stifled a sob. ‘They also found records about who was taken when. That last one, the guy you visited, he was taken November 27. When they were done with him, they just dumped him on the train station in the middle of the night.’ Adam simply nodded. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Abigail banged her fist on the table. ‘You think Frank did this? Are you willing to leave him to rot in prison for something he didn’t do?’

Adam gave her a level look. ‘I’m not doing Francis a favour if I break him out of custody.’ He leaned forwards. ‘And this?’ He gestured to the black TV screen behind him. ‘This horrible, disgusting … thing? I do have a suspect list in my head, Abigail, and yes, it’s extremely short. But one thing’s certain. Francis isn’t on it.’

He saw her nod briefly. ‘Good. Because there’s no way in hell he’d do something like this.’

‘I know that. Francis is a gentle soul, even if he tries to hide it. This guy, this …’

‘Let’s call him asshat, shall we?’

‘Okay. This _asshat_ is either extremely ordinary or a person who seems guileless, borderline naïve. He’s frustrated, he’s hateful, he’s broken. He must have, and this is going to save Francis if nothing else does, he must have the knowledge how to operate on someone. Francis is none of these things. He fulfils only one of the attributes I believe our culprit to have: He’s male. That’s it.’ He closed his eyes and shook his head, tried not to think of Francis caged and alone.

‘He wasn’t even in the country, November 27,’ Abigail said.

‘I know, but we cannot give them his travel documents. He hinted that they’ve been tampered with or forged. Abigail, I’ll go upstairs and look for anything that Francis may have found and didn’t get to tell me, yet. We’ll get him out of this. Not because we are biased, but because he is innocent.’

Abigail swallowed and covered Adam’s hands with her own. ‘You really love him, don’t you?’

Adam sighed. ‘More than he knows.’

Ϡ

The moment Adam stepped into Francis’s room, the reality of it all hit him with the force of a shotgun blast. Trancelike, he walked to the bed and let himself fall on it, burying his face in the pillow to soak what scent lingered into his core. If he closed his eyes he could imagine Francis was there with him, asleep and sheltered. But the pillow didn’t breathe and it didn’t have a heartbeat and trying to forget only made it worse. Adam sat up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘Francis?’ he tried. No answer. They must be keeping him in an EMP field. It wasn’t unexpected.

With an effort, Adam got up and walked to Francis’s desk. ‘Sorry, I have to,’ he said quietly. Going through his stuff seemed wrong, but the only other option was to do nothing at all.

He found … a lot. Notes that probably referred to the MANES in some way. A part of a script that Adam didn’t dare read because it seemed even more of an intrusion than anything else he was doing. The release papers from the hospital. And finally a number of pages with notes concerning their case. There was an address in Glasgow – Soutar’s, Adam assumed, although it didn’t say so. Diagrams that Adam couldn’t make head nor tail of, reminding him that Francis’s mind worked in a rather unique way. On one piece of paper there was nothing, only the name Fabian with a question mark and circled thickly. What it meant was anyone’s guess, but Adam couldn’t picture him cutting up people, either.

He put that note aside. He knew Fabian was home, he’d speak to him. His eyes brushed the release papers. For a moment, he stared at them, then he grabbed them and the other piece of paper and ran back downstairs. He found both Fabian and Abigail in the downstairs den, talking in an undertone. Adam all but shoved the release papers into Abigail’s hands. ‘Call your lawyer. Send him this. Francis was in hospital when Marcus Dillinger was taken.’ Adam watched Fabian start at the mention of the name. Abigail snatched the papers, pressed her lips to Adam’s cheek, and ran out.

Adam approached Fabian. ‘Dillinger mean anything to you?’

‘I … Adam, I can’t talk about it.’

‘Marcus Dillinger was murdered today. In the past months or more, an unknown number of people were butchered in that warehouse. People in your sphere, because you are a social worker, and they were all homeless or prostitutes or addicts.’

Fabian closed his eyes. ‘God. You don’t think I am that monster, do you?’

Adam closed his eyes for a moment. He was very sure he was barking up the wrong tree and that didn’t help anyone. ‘No. But I think you know something.’

‘I … do. Maybe.’ He looked at the door where Abigail had vanished. ‘Both Marcus and I were working with the police. Marcus as an undercover investigator, he had … contacts. The local police … you see, there’s so little going on and he worked with them before, never anything dangerous, just asking around. We thought this was more of the same. He told me he thought he knew who our kidnapper was the day before he vanished.’ Another glance to the door. ‘Look, Abi doesn’t know this and she can’t.’

‘How could you work on the case if you were in Guatemala?’

Fabian blushed mildly and looked away. He was obviously still uncomfortable about leaving Abigail hanging like that. ‘I worked on it before I went. When Marcus vanished, they pulled me out of the operation. God knows what the police is doing instead, but I’m sure they’re trying. They just can’t risk losing civilians.’

‘I get that.’ Adam showed Fabian the paper. ‘How did Francis know you’re in this somehow?’

‘I … may have tried to persuade him not to meet Marcus. I didn’t want him to get involved in this entire mess. Poor soul.’

‘I can’t do this alone, Fabian. I need to know what you know. I know it’s a lot to ask because your information is classified as long as the investigation isn’t over. But I cannot sit here and do nothing.’

‘I … I’ve been thinking the same thing. My brother-in-law’s in custody while I sit here with my thumb up my butt. I need to get back out there. And so do you.’ He stood and put his hands on Adam’s shoulders. ‘Let’s nail this bastard.’

Adam nodded slowly. ‘Yes. But not today. Hanzer or no, I need sleep. And right now, I think I need a lot. It was … a long day.’

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((So. The weekend is knocking on my door and I’m going to spend most if it away from home. So I won’t get to write (much) during it. I’ll be back next week.))_


	19. Three Miles of Bad Road

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Note to self: While music usually helps me write, Rammstein doesn’t. I just stare at the screen and zone out. I can’t let it wash over me. I can let the_ War Requiem _wash over me, however. Well. Parts of it. Huh.  
>  The chapter heading is a line from _Crush With Eyeliner _by R.E.M. Oh, and my Spanish is practically non-existent. o.O ))_

Adam and Fabian left for Aberdeen the next day after lunch. According to Fabian, anything earlier wouldn’t go down well with the guy they’d visit first. Abigail didn’t exactly question the statement that Adam would help with a problem at one of the shelters Fabian visited regularly, but it was clear that she suspected something was going on. Fabian drove, giving Adam time to consider what good this could possibly do other than soothe their nerves because they were at least doing more than wait.

Abigail had reached her lawyer the night before and he had told him that the papers from the hospital should help sort out the problem very quickly, ID or no. He was certain that since Francis was unable to identify himself they would have scanned his biochip, and that was more than sufficient. How quickly remained to be seen, but such clear evidence would force them to act fast. In Adam’s experience it should take at the most 24 hours from when Abigail had made her call. No-one wanted the problems it could cause to keep someone in custody when they were clearly innocent.

Fabian halted at a rundown restaurant on the outskirts of the town. ‘Before we go, I should let you know something.’ Adam raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s like this. I fucked up. I think I talked to the murderer and I gave him information.’

‘Go on.’

‘He called and claimed he was doing a survey and did I have a moment. He said he was from the home office. That actually makes sense, they do sometimes call out lot. He said they wanted to get an idea augments and poverty since the incident and a feel of the mood. He asked a number of questions, most of them … nothing significant. But he wanted to know how many augmented people there were in the homeless shelters and going on the game, whose augs are most frequent, as in, which company’s. I told him. I told him that in the outer city homeless shelters there’s a lot of augs and in prostitution, too. More than natches there.’

‘What makes you think this wasn’t a real survey?’

Fabian bit his lower lip. ‘I don’t know. He sounded off. I recorded the call, though. I can’t do anything with it, but maybe Francis can trace it. I didn’t ask him because I wanted to keep him out of this mess. But I guess it’s too late for that now. Aside from my sense of wrongness … The questions became weird. Like what I think they’d do if promised neuropozyne. I told him nothing because the social workers were keeping them supplied. Someone from the home office knows that, Adam. He went on like that, as in, how could you buy them or manipulate them. And a little while later, the entire mess started.’

Adam sighed. ‘Okay. If you hadn’t told him, he’d have found his information elsewhere.’

‘Still. I’m responsible for these people, Adam. I’m responsible for the dead ones.’

‘How long have you been a social worker?’

‘Eleven years.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s … draining, sometimes. Some days I feel that I make a difference. Mostly, though … And then I go and help a murderer.’

‘I knew people in the Detroit vice squad. They said about the same thing. That it’s draining. Piece of advice, Fabian. If it starts eating you, run like hell. I’ve seen enough people break because they cared too much.’

‘Thanks. Not going to happen. But you needed to know that. I needed you to.’

‘Understood.’

‘Let’s go. Sergio’s waiting for us.’

Adam left the car and fell into step beside Fabian. ‘So where are we going, exactly?’

‘First, a homeless shelter. Then we’ll visit another guy I’ve been working with. He’s really nice, has called me a couple of times to sort out a conflict before it turns violent. He called me before I was pulled out of the operation, said he knew something that might help.’

‘How do you make it to Aberdeen so fast?’

‘Not at all. He used to be in Westhill, but there was too little business so he moved to Aberdeen a couple of months ago.’

‘What does a businessman need with a social worker?’

Fabian looked at him squarely. ‘Depends on what business you’re in, Adam.’

‘Oh.’

‘We’re there. Listen up. Can you try looking less like a cop?’

‘You too? Sorry. I’ve left my not-a-cop-badge at home.’

‘You could at least try to smile.’

‘Like that?’ Adam gave him a Cheshire grin.

Fabian laughed. ‘Yeah. That looks more like lunatic than cop. A lot better.’ He walked into the shelter, Adam in his wake. He greeted the woman at the front desk, who gave him a toothless smile, and led the way up to the third floor (which was numbered 2, of course), where he knocked on a door. A young man opened the door. His eyes bored immediately in to Adam’s.  ‘He’s my friend,’ Fabian told him.

‘Se parece a un policía.’

Fabian smiled at him. ‘No se preocupe. Él quiere ayudar, Sergio. And please, do speak English. We both know you can. It’s not very nice to exclude him.’

‘Help with what?’ Sergio asked. He had an audible accent, more than Fabian, who sounded almost like a native except that he didn’t have the Scottish colouring.

‘I want to find who is kidnapping people,’ Adam told him.

‘But we don’t know that. None of us is prepared to risk ending up dead like those poor guys. And Fabian told us not to trust anyone and how to tell real from fake cops.’

‘Now I’d like to know that, too,’ Adam said.

Fabian smiled faintly. ‘Generally, the real ones forward their IDs, and with very few exceptions they let you call at the station to verify that they’re actually supposed to be there. Especially since the kidnappings, they get that people are scared, and they’re aware it’s not without reason. So if the police come here, my advice to the front desk was to make a call. Not that I think our guy is getting his victims from in here. He picks them off the streets, out of the drain.’ He frowned. ‘Sergio, I wondered. Did Kaleigh and Reg remember anything?’

‘Nah. Still blubbering about monsters.’ The young man’s eyes became pained. ‘Reg tried to rip the leg out.’

‘Jesus. Is he all right?’

‘They brought him to hospital.’

‘What hospital?’ Adam asked.

Sergio hesitated and glanced at Fabian, who nodded briefly. ‘Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,’ Sergio said at last.

‘Remind me to call them when we leave, Fabian. I need to tell them something.’

‘Okay.’ Fabian rubbed his neck. ‘Shit. I hoped since our mutual friend remembered that these two might also … Damn it.’ He nodded to Sergio. ‘If anything comes to mind, anything at all, call me.’

‘¿Estás investigando oficialmente otra vez?’

Fabian smiled at Sergio, extended his hand and they shook. ‘No. Estoy por mi cuenta. Thanks, Sergio. Anything else going on?’ Sergio’s eyes went to Adam. ‘He’s fine. I told you.’

‘Markian and David got in a fight last night. It was … bad. Now Markian’s hurt, but Katarina sent a doctor over after someone called her over. David’s gone, though. But I don’t think he’s been kidnapped, he ran.’

‘Did you call the police?’

‘Oh, come on.’

‘Call them. Please, Sergio. Are there witnesses?’

‘Yeah. Me and I think Merve. I wish you’d move to Aberdeen. I could’ve used you and your golden tongue.’

‘Silver tongue,’ Fabian said with a smile. ‘Sorry, I’m staying out of the city. You need to trust the local lot. They’re doing great work.’

‘I know.’

‘Promise me to call the cops.’ Adam could feel the social enhancer come to life. ‘Come on, Sergio. It’s dangerous out there. I know you are friends with them both, but if David doesn’t come here, he might get seriously hurt. You don’t want that.’

‘No.’ Sergio looked at his feet. ‘I’ll call them. I promise.’

Ϡ

On the way to the hustler’s place, Fabian seemed lost in his own thoughts. Adam called the hospital and asked them to keep an eye on the injured aug from the homeless shelter and not to transfer him anywhere else because the person abducting and butchering people might want to silence him. They seemed to agree.

Fabian’s contact went by the name Lancelot. He was tall, muscular, and Adam estimated his age at around thirty. He greeted Fabian with a hug and Adam with a handshake. ‘Haven’t seen you in ages,’ he said. ‘Wish it was a social call.’

‘I promise, I’ll make good for it. But now I need to know what you wanted to tell me.’

‘It’s like this … when you first asked me if I had seen or heard anything, I found the way you asked so weird. As if it was only just natches going missing. But then you were off across the sea and I thought you couldn’t or wouldn’t look into it further. And I don’t believe the police are going to get anything done.’

Fabian had listened with his arms folded. ‘What do you mean, as if it was only natches? I didn’t realise augmented people had vanished, too.’

‘The first were all augs, Fabian. And we told the police that, but they thought the two things weren’t connected. It wasn’t their kidnappers M.O. Partly because those augs didn’t come back, other than the natches. I bet you a year’s supply of nupoz that you’ll find them in that pile of corpses.’

Adam tried to push the mental image away. ‘Our killer salvaged their hardware and modified it. That answers a lot of questions.’

‘Can you do that?’ Fabian asked.

‘If you have the knowhow. Fabian … what are the prevalent companies you find on the people here?’

‘Mostly N-Pro Tech, of course. Second among the older augs is Sarif Industries. TYM wasn’t all that popular here. That’s probably why they had to defame the competition.’

‘That explains why there was at least one victim in Detroit. Our perp must have tried out if there was a fundamental difference between their chips and yours here.’

‘Does that help you at all? Knowing that this creature took augmented guys?’

‘It answers the question how he supplied himself. I did wonder if he had an accomplice who stole material for him from old storages. Like this, he wouldn’t need anyone. Hang on, infolink. Must be Abigail.’

For a few seconds there was only static. Then he heard Francis, loud and clear and resolute. ‘Jensen, are you still there? God, I can barely uphold the connection yet. Look, I need a ride. If you can’t or … well … If you can’t pick me up, please ask Abi. I’m at the police station. The one you know. I … hope I’ll see you soon. Pritchard out.’

Adam saw the concern on Fabian’s face. He schooled his expression into something less stricken, even though he couldn’t keep the smile from his face entirely. ‘Fabian, are we done? Because Francis just called. We can bring him home.’


	20. Up in Arms and Chaste and Whole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((This monstrosity of a chapter heading is a line from_ Twist in My Sobriety _by Tanita Tikaram (whose brother Ramon Tikaram voiced Dorian Pavus so wonderfully in_ Dragon Age: Inquisition _, if you want a random bit of completely irrelevant information) and makes extremely little sense in this context but I’m stuck with it.))_

The police station was bustling with life around Frank while he waited. He knew it took a while from Aberdeen so he prepared to try melting into the background for the next half hour. His head was slowly stopping to spin. Making contact with the infolink had been difficult after the EMP field had been cancelled, the side effects would stay with him for another couple of hours. In the meantime, Frank had had time to catch up with the news in the waiting room. For the first time, he saw the corpses in the warehouse. He looked away. He couldn’t stomach violence at the best of times, but now that he was lightheaded already, he was sure he was going to throw up if he kept looking.

The door opened and in a gust of ice cold wind, in swept Adam. Frank stared at him and their eyes met across the room. For a moment the man stood in the doorway, frozen. Frank tried to force his deer-in-the-headlights-look into something less freaked out. And then it didn’t matter because Adam all but ran to him, pulled him to his feet and hugged him tightly. ‘You thought I wouldn’t come,’ Adam said quietly. ‘You thought I’d abandoned you.’

Frank clung to him like a drowning man. ‘Jensen, they don’t arrest you for murder unless they have a good reason.’ Adam released him, his expression pained. Frank fought the urge to beg the forgiveness he knew he had already. Instead, he kissed Adam briefly. ‘They were so certain, they must have found some really hard evidence against me. And no-one sane would stay with a … a …’

‘Abigail suggested asshat. And you just wait until you know what they _didn’t_ find. I don’t know if a piece of paper could have got you out so quickly if they’d had it.’ Adam took his face into both hands. ‘Let’s leave. I need you to hear something. Maybe you can help me figure out how it was made.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Are you all right, Francis?’

He smiled. ‘I’m good. I didn’t put up a fight, so they had no reason to hurt me.’

‘Wise choice.’ Adam stopped at the car. ‘Francis. Trust me. I told you that I don’t believe you’re involved.’

‘I know, but … Hang on, that’s Fabian’s car. And how did you get here so fast?’

‘I was already in Aberdeen. Fabian volunteered to take a bus home and let me take his keys. I told him I didn’t mind him coming, but he said we’d need space.’

‘Bless him.’

‘You don’t think he’s an accomplice to whoever our murderer is?’

‘Fabian?’ Frank laughed. ‘Never. So from what I know, Abi went rifling through my documents and produced the hospital sheet. I probably shouldn’t complain, but I don’t like the thought. Never mind what would have happened if she’d given them my ID, thinking she was helping.’

Adam swallowed. ‘Ah, Francis. That wasn’t Abigail. I searched your things. I hoped to find notes on our case, and when I found the release papers, I gave them to your sister. And even I didn’t see your ID, so I doubt she would have.’

‘Oh.’ Frank sighed. ‘That’s … different. If you did it.’

‘It is?’

‘Yes. She’s my sister and I love her to the moon and back. But you … Adam, you’re a part of me. Anything that’s mine is yours.’ He felt himself blush under the intense look Adam gave him. ‘Can we drive home now, or do we spend the rest of the afternoon waiting in this car?’

‘I want you to listen to this first. I took this recording from the warehouse by chance. I wanted some piece of evidence I could work with. Can you find out who made it?’

‘Let me hear it and I’ll tell you.’ Frank felt himself go pale when he heard his own voice from the device. ‘You listened to this,’ he said slowly, ‘and didn’t think I’m him?’

‘Truth now? For a moment, and I swear it was less than a minute, I did. But the truth is, Francis, I _know_ you. The good and the bad. And this isn’t something that you’ve got in you. I tried to call you immediately, but when I got to listen to this, you were already arrested and your infolink dead.’

Francis launched himself half on top of Adam and kissed him hard on the mouth. His hip collided with the horn for a moment, but he didn’t care, not even remotely. ‘I love you so much, I can’t even tell you.’

Adam cupped his cheek. ‘Same here, Francis. Don’t you ever doubt that. Now let’s go home.’

‘Good idea. I need a shower.’

Adam started the car when Francis had put himself back into the passenger seat. ‘Care for company?’

‘And there you go, ruining my subtlety by stating the obvious.’

Ϡ

When they got back to Peterculter, Abigail was writing in her den. As soon as she saw Francis she froze with her hands hovering over the keys. ‘Oh my God.’ She all but fell over her own feet when she ran to him, hugging him fiercely and kissing his cheeks. ‘Why didn’t you call me and tell me you were coming home?’

Francis frowned slightly. ‘I thought you knew. Isn’t Fabian here, yet?’

Abigail sighed. ‘No. He called that he had to return to the homeless shelter. Something must have come up after he left his car with you.’ She smiled fondly. ‘He told me he’d given you his keys, Adam. He said you had to pick up a package.’

‘Well, I’m glad they didn’t stuff me into a carton box to deliver me to Adam,’ Francis said. ‘Although he’d probably like that.’

‘Frank, how could they arrest you? Do you need anything? Did they hurt you?’

‘No one hurt me, Abi.’ Francis let himself be steered to a chair by her. ‘I’m fine, for crying out loud, I was in custody, not left to fend for myself alone amongst a bunch of thugs and rapists.’

‘But … they couldn’t just take you away like that, I’m sure you can sue for compensation.’

Francis laughed. ‘Don’t be so American, Abi. Look. They came to ask me a few questions and I failed to answer the first by refusing to give them an ID. I’m a foreigner without credentials. They had no choice, if I were their murderer, I’d have grabbed my passport and fled not only the country but the entire continent and gone dark.’

‘Adam?’

‘He’s right.’

‘When they came, I didn’t think of the release papers, I have to admit. I just knew I had nothing to do with this, and I relied on you finding the real kidnapper.’ Francis stood up again. ‘Adam, I’d like to run a few tests on the thing we’ve got. Come on.’

Adam was halfway upstairs when something occurred to him. ‘If Fabian isn’t back by nightfall, let us know.’ He heard her confirmation and continued. ‘Something isn’t right about this, Francis. It’s too convenient.’

The hacker shook his head. ‘You really think he’s involved?’

‘No. But he talked to our killer and he feels bad about it. I just fear he might do something reckless.’ Adam swore and balled his fists. ‘Damn it, Francis, I can’t sit here and wait. I’m so sorry, but I have to go to the shelter. I’ve got a horrible feeling about this.’

‘And you gut instincts are pretty damn solid. I understand, Adam.’ He gave him a lingering kiss that tore a sigh from Adam. ‘Be safe out there. Come back home to me in one piece. Promise.’

‘I fully intend to do so.’

‘I’ll run my programs after a shower. I should have some results soon.’

‘Ideas?’

‘Only two, but with this crappy quality I can’t tell just by listening.’

‘Tell me what you think before I go.’

Francis rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. ‘Very well, Jensen. Let’s see. How much do you know about laryngeal augments?’

‘I know that the infolink has a part …’

‘No. Please stop. I’m not talking tiny implanted microphones for subvocalisation.’ He walked into the bathroom, pulling off his shirt on the way. Adam followed, intrigued by the movement of the muscles in his back as well as his voice. ‘What I mean is there are two kinds of laryngeal augs. One is used mainly for sex reassignment surgery, male to female, to be precise. It uses the existing vocal chords to alter pitch, mainly. There is no way to tell people who have these augs from natural, non-augmented voices. But these aren’t the point right now.

‘But there’s the other kind. For patients who have suffered severe physical damage to the larynx in an accident or due to cancer. They get an implant that can, based on a recording of their voice, reproduce how they sounded. That, too, sounds convincing enough, but it is … well, flatter. The voice, you could say, is too perfect, no airiness, no glottal stop, no instances where your voice just fails for a second. You can hear that face to face or on a good audio file if you know what you’re listening for. With the static on your recording, I couldn’t tell. But you can always, even on that crappy device of yours, find things, artefacts, if you analyse the voice sample.’

‘So what is it you are trying to figure out?’ Adam asked while Francis ditched his remaining clothes, standing in front of him naked and tempting. He swallowed drily and forced himself to stay focussed.

The smirk on Francis’s face showed that he knew exactly what he was doing to Adam. ‘I want to know if whoever that was pieced the recording together by using voice samples from me, or if he used the second type of technology to reproduce my voice. The former would be disconcerting, because he’d need quite a bit of footage. The second … If I can work out what his sample was – the words or syllables taken from the sample sound more natural than those that were calculated from those samples. If I can work out what his sample was, we may know who he is. Assuming it was something more unique than, ‘Hello, world’.’

Adam covered the distance between them and pulled Francis against his chest, squeezing his butt. He let one finger tease his crack and was rewarded with a low moan. He released Francis and smiled at him. ‘You are more brilliant than anyone has a right to.’

‘I’m doing my best.’ He sounded slightly husky.

Adam looked down between them and saw Francis half hard. ‘Keep it warm for me, would you?’ he said gently. ‘I’ll try to come back soon.’

‘I’ll contact you as soon as I know something. Now go, as long as I let you.’

 

 


	21. Твій дотик страшна сила

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Chapter heading is Ukrainian. I try not to do that often, but this line forced itself on the chapter. Read:_ Tviy dotyk strashna syla _. It means_ Your touch is a terrible power _and is a line taken from the song_ Вогонь _(read:_ vohon’ _, which means_ Fire _) by Delia.))_

Adam halted right in front of the door of the shelter in a spray of gravel. His sense of something wrong had increased all the way to Aberdeen, something that didn’t add up. He slammed his hands on the front desk and stared down at the shrinking woman behind it. ‘Did Fabian come back here? Fabian Escriva? I was here with him earlier.’

‘He … I am not authorised to …’

Adam swore. ‘I think he might be in trouble. I want to help him, for God’s sake.’

‘You … He’s all right. He left with Sergio.’

‘Thanks.’ On a whim, Adam ran up the stairs to Sergio’s room. The door was locked with a mechanical lock. It didn’t withstand a good kick with an augmented leg. ‘Sorry,’ he said to no-one in particular and entered.

Superficially, the room looked tidy enough and perfectly ordinary. The one remarkable thing was that there were no pictures of people at all, but maybe that came with living in a homeless shelter. Adam checked the desk in a corner and found only a few documents. With a glance at the door to make sure he was still alone, Adam looked under the pillow and the covers. After a moment of hesitation, he removed the sheets entirely. At last, without expecting much, he hoisted the mattress off the bed. And there, under the slatted frame, were papers. ‘Gotcha,’ he said and fished them out. He gave them a glance and sighed. ‘Francis? You done?’

‘What do you think how long I shower? Uh … Don’t answer that.’

‘How’s your Spanish?’

‘About as good as your Urdu.’

‘That’s what I feared. Can you see this? I need a translation. At least what it is. Hang on, there’s English.’ Adam had found a paper in a small, untidy scrawl. It was hard to read, but Adam got the gist of it, which was a threat. ‘This isn’t good. Listen. Fabian went off with Sergio, and Sergio was asked to deliver … There’s no date on this, but it was relatively far up on the pile of papers.’

‘Did they say where they were going?’

‘Doubtful. More Spanish.’

‘Forget your Spanish papers, the first one wasn’t much, just a list of random stuff, like things that might be in storage somewhere.’

‘This is a homeless shelter. I doubt he has things in a storage.’

‘I said might be. Maybe it’s just things he wants to have eventually. Or things he lost. That last one … oh, will you look at that.’

‘What?’

‘This, in your hand right now! It’s English, Jensen, read it.’

Adam read. ‘Dear Mr Bedoya, we regret to inform you that your education cannot be recognised as long as you are unable to provide us with documents that you have, in fact, completed that education. We tried contacting the CETYS University, but have yet to receive a reply.’

‘Yeah, yeah. Skip that. Look at the reference heading.’

‘Recognition of Acoustics Major.’

‘Jensen, the CETYS is all but dead since the Incident.’ Adam could hear Francis typing like mad. ‘They wouldn’t have answered because it has … hang on … yes, burnt down to the ground, their servers are almost completely unsalvageable, and they have lost more than half their staff that day. They didn’t answer because they don’t know themselves. That recording you had, I have to analyse it yet, but this man is an acoustician with no perspective and someone threatening him to take what little he has left.’

‘You are telling me he was trying to frame you?’

‘Maybe. Keep looking.’

‘There are addresses here.’

‘Yes. A bunch of them. Hang on. Give me a … Yes. Damn it. That address, ah, the fifth. I know that one.’

‘Glasgow.’ Adam closed his eyes. ‘Soutar, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘I knew it. I’m going there now.’

‘That’s a three hour drive!’

‘I know. What else do you want me to do?’

‘What do I want?’ Francis snorted. ‘What I want isn’t at issue, but I’ll paint you a picture anyway. I want you to come right back here, stick your beautiful, hard cock in me, and fuck me into next week. But I know I can’t have that, so there’s that.’

Adam was instantly provided with a vivid image of Francis, open and bare and squirming with need. ‘I must say I prefer your idea, but I think it’ll have to wait.’

‘I feared as much. Adam, if you’re wrong …’

‘I know. But look at it this way. Someone threatened Sergio if he fails to deliver something. Sergio has the knowhow to fake the recording incriminating you. And now he and Fabian walked off together … God knows where. Fabian is either in on this, or he’s supposed to be a victim.’

‘He is already augmented. The recent victims were all naturals.’

‘He has a CASIE-Mod, Pritchard.’ Adam was already on his way thundering down the stairs. ‘You don’t see that unless you push his hair away. Sergio might not even know.’

‘If anything happens to him it’ll break Abi’s heart.’

‘That’s why I’m going.’

‘I … You’re right. I’ll try and find out if anything did become of Sergio’s recognition, but I doubt it. Good luck.’

Ϡ

Adam reached the address on Sergio’s paper after dark. It was in Hillington, a place that was actually in Renfrew rather than Glasgow, even though the postal code belonged to the latter. That was what Francis had told him, at least.

The building was as bleak and grey as one would expect in an industrial area. Adam took a walk around it. The windows were all barred and high up, the only door had an electronic lock. There was no way to see if anyone was in there or not. ‘Pritchard, do you have any news? Preferably that Fabian has come back home?’

‘Sorry, no. And Abi is getting scared. I’ll have to tell her, won’t I?’

‘She’ll hear the truth anyway, whatever it is.’

‘Maybe I’ll leave out the detail that we’re not so sure if he isn’t there willingly.’

‘You know what? Wait until we know if he’s there at all. I’m going to try and get past this lock.’

‘Wait, maybe I can help you. I’ve got your location, so I might as well …’ Adam did as he was asked. After less than twenty seconds, Francis was back. ‘Sorry. I … ah … have bad news.’

‘No remote door opening, huh? I’ll see what I can do.’

‘Jensen, wait, I …’

‘I’ve done enough waiting. I’m going now.’

‘Very well. See what good it does you.’

Shaking his head, Adam approached the building.

A red light flared on the panel beside the door and a cluster of voices started speaking. ‘Hello. This area is restricted. Please remove yourself from the premises or be prepared to face severe repercussions.’

‘Pritchard!’

‘I was _trying_ to tell you that I cannot help you because the system guarding the place is the MANES.’ He was silent for a few seconds. ‘I … I didn’t leave myself a backdoor, Jensen. I cannot hack it, either, I never managed in a testing environment. Which was the point, actually. This is my fault, I sold him the thing.’

‘You didn’t know. You couldn’t know.’ Adam took a deep breath. ‘I have an idea. Just … stay with me.’

‘Nothing I’d rather do.’

Adam folded his arms and glared at the panel. ‘Hi MANES. Let’s have a chat.’

 

 


	22. Without Notes No More Chords

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Chapter heading is taken from the song_ Without Your Words _by Deine Lakaien. It narrowly escaped another Ukrainian heading.  
>  I have also borrowed a slightly modified bit of dialogue (or rather, monologue) from _Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines _. Extra points for finding it and pointing it out to me.))_

Adam watched the light on the panel go from red to yellow. He decided it was a small success. ‘Hello, Adam. You are not meant to be here.’

‘Francis, why does that thing know me?’

‘The MANES works in a network. Every instance recognises the individuals known to it. It won’t tell the owners of this instance anything about you, though.’ Francis paused for a moment. ‘Don’t let that fool you into thinking that it will treat you differently than any other intruder. You’re not Captain Kirk, either, so you can’t talk it to death.’

‘I wasn’t planning to. MANES, can you tell me how many people are in there?’

‘I’m afraid that this is none of your business.’

‘Fine, be that way. Defences as usual, or anything lethal?’

‘I cannot operate lethal defence.’

‘Francis, is that true?’

Francis snorted. ‘Are you expecting an AI to lie to you to trick you into a death trap?’

‘It’s your AI. I wouldn’t put much past it.’

‘I’m not going to answer that. Ask it if there’s another system at work that can kill you. It should be able to tell you that.’

Adam smiled. ‘The Creator thinks that you might be able to say if there is any other security that does use lethal force.’

‘There is. You will find two turrets inside. They are equipped with an IFF. And you, in case that is unclear, are a foe if you choose to enter.’

‘Yeah, I gathered that. Bots, poison, anything else?’

‘No, Adam, only turrets. If that does not seem to be enough of a challenge, I could warn the people inside that I am being questioned.’

‘That … won’t be necessary. Thanks. Is anyone inside injured or otherwise in immediate danger?’

‘I cannot give you personal medical data of anyone inside. You should know better than to ask.’

‘What I meant is, does anyone inside need an ambulance?’

‘Why would you think I can answer the question because you paraphrase it?’

Adam huffed. ‘Francis. Ideas?’

‘A warning, maybe,’ the hacker said slowly. ‘The MANES may not be lethal, but it can hurt you. Badly.’

‘Can you find out what defences this place has beside the MANES, like where those turrets are?’

‘Sorry, no, and before you ask, I did try.’ He sounded harassed. ‘Whatever they are using to control their turrets, they hooked that computer up to the MANES as well, which means it’s protected. Not controlled by the MANES, but still blocking me. So far, I haven’t managed to get in. I’ll keep trying, but don’t expect too much.’

‘MANES? It was nice talking to you. I’ll leave now.’

‘Reasonable choice. The Creator would not appreciate it if I were to hurt you.’

‘Indeed he would not,’ Francis said. ‘Adam, you do realise that you could just, you know, call the police.’

‘And they’ll come in with all the subtlety of a frag grenade.’

‘And if Fabian is a captive, they’ll murder him. You’re right. I hate it when you’re right.’

Adam had walked away from the building and took another walk around it, trying to assess the strength of the shutters on the windows. ‘The door isn’t an option. That leaves sewer or windows. I’d prefer the latter. Is there a way to tell if the MANES is watching them, too?’

‘No. But I’d guess that the windows are safe for you. They do have shutters and they are too high up for a normal person to jump. So if I were in there and didn’t expect a heavily augmented ex-cop to storm the premises, I wouldn’t equip the windows.’

‘A non-augmented person could always use a ladder.’

‘Sure. But why would they? The place doesn’t look promising. You can’t get in through the sewers, by the way, unless you manage to crawl through a u-bend.’

‘I’ll pass.’ Adam had made it to the far end of the building from the door. Here, the shutters didn’t go down all the way, leaving an inch or so of space. He approached carefully, expecting a red light to go on. None came. ‘Seems good. Is the MANES capable of pretending it’s not looking?’

‘Its job isn’t trapping people but stopping them,’ Francis answered. ‘If it’s silent, it’s not aware of you.’

Adam looked up. It was high, even for him. Aiming carefully for the narrow ledge of the window he’d have to grab, he jumped. His fingertips grabbed onto the rough brick. Securing his hold as much as he could, Adam let go with one hand to wedge the other into the shutters. He managed to break the lower part away, pull himself further up, and punch in the window. Hoping no-one had heard, he hoisted himself inside, thankfully without cutting what was flesh and blood on his body open on the glass. ‘Francis, I’m in.’

The other man made an impatient sound. ‘I know. Try not to die. Can you do that for me?’

‘No guarantee, Pritchard, remember?’ Adam looked around. It wasn’t a large place, thankfully. The room he was in was flooded in light from a camera above him. Pressed against the wall as he was, it couldn’t see him, but to reach the door, Adam had to use the glass shield. In the corridor, he was safe for the moment there was a camera, but it was looking the other way. He listened, hard. For voices, the beeping of a camera that had noticed him, or for the mechanical whirring of a turret. He heard none of those things.

It soon became clear that whatever was to be found here, it was below. Adam did encounter one of the turrets on the upper floor, but the room it was in was deserted, and he managed not to be spotted by it.

‘Jensen!’ Francis’s voice was excited. ‘I have something for you. From before the MANES. A layout of the building. Soutar owns it and apparently, he planned to sell it a while ago, but couldn’t find a buyer. It doesn’t have a cellar and you are currently on the second floor. The first floor has three rooms, one of them with lab equipment, and one with an airlock.’

‘Are you telling me there’s a cleanroom in here?’

‘Exactly. He used to work here, Jensen. When he was still with N-Pro Tech. This was his office.’

‘I didn’t realise that augmentation manufacturers had home offices.’

‘It seems unusual. But we don’t know how N-Pro Tech worked, do we?’

‘No. Thanks, Pritchard. I’m going to take a look downstairs. They have to be here.’

‘If not, where will you go?’

‘I haven’t the faintest idea.’

Ϡ

Downstairs, it became clear that the cameras had an eye on practically everything. And their movement was as unpredictable as it had been outside Abigail’s house. Adam would have to remain cloaked, which also meant he didn’t have much time. ‘Francis, where is that cleanroom? I can’t look everywhere.’

‘Far room on the left. Be careful, you don’t know where the second turret is.’

‘Like I could forget about that.’ Adam activated his cloak and made it to the door, moving as efficiently as he could. Once through, he let it go. The airlock had no camera. Adam waited out the decontamination process. Once it was done, he took a deep breath and moved on into the cleanroom.

If Adam had wondered what he expected, he’d probably have come up with the right answer, or at least, close to it. Soutar stood at an operating table, scalpel in hand. It didn’t look bloody. On the table lay Fabian, a tube in his mouth and very obviously unconscious. He was hooked up to several monitors. Soutar froze when Adam came in, then he let out a yell. He dropped the scalpel. ‘I found him like that, I …’

‘Spare me.’ Adam advanced slowly. ‘So what were you going to do with him, exactly? Harvest him or put more augs on him?’

‘Har…harvest?’

‘You didn’t even bother to check. He already has a biochip. Another would have killed him.’ Adam had heard about tests with multiple biochips. No amount of Neuropozyne could save you from the cataclysm that caused in your brain.

‘I know. Regrettable.’

‘You’ll learn about regret. You’re coming with me.’

Soutar chuckled. ‘Oh no, I’m not. You cannot drag me through the cameras without alerting them to you. You’ll be out cold in seconds and dead later.’

‘You do realise that I’m not on my own, don’t you?’ Soutar looked behind Adam as if expecting a group of policemen to materialise there. ‘No-one is here, and maybe I will die today. But you are done, because people know I’m here, they hear me talking to you this very moment. You can try and fight me. Or you shut the MANES down and come quietly.’

‘No. I’m taking you down with me.’ Soutar blinked out of sight. Adam swore and lunged, but he found only thin air. The door opened and closed, locking itself briefly. ‘Pritchard, can you put an emergency lock on the place?’

‘No, but I don’t think Soutar’s going to leave. You need to be careful. He’s clearly unhinged.’

Adam took a look at Fabian. ‘Do you have any idea what I have to do to make sure he won’t die?’

‘Sorry, I must have missed class the day they covered finding someone out cold on an operating table.’

‘Me too. Fuck. I’ll leave him like this, I don’t dare remove him from anything. At least we know he’s alive right now.’

‘Yes. Oh God, he’s got to be all right.’

‘He doesn’t seem injured.’ Adam returned to the door and headed out again. The camera caught sight of him and blared an alarm. ‘Yeah, I know you know I’m here.’ He activated his glass shield. ‘And now I’m gone.’ He darted across the corridor to another room. It looked empty, but of course, Soutar could still be cloaked. That left the last room, which had to be the lab. Adam got inside, feeling the pull on his reserves from the cloaking. He took a moment to collect himself and looked around.

The lab was a large open space with shelves and surfaces and various applications whose purpose eluded Adam completely. The turret was also in here, but it wasn’t active. There was plenty of space to hide. Behind himself, Adam heard a beep, followed by the echoing voice of the MANES. ‘You may not have been visible, but I can still see doors opening and closing. You’ll remain in there until Jacob decides on what to do next.’

Adam ignored it. He walked the perimeter of the room, feeling his way into corners to make sure Soutar wasn’t in one. As long as he remained motionless, he would be able to cloak for a long time. Adam was fully prepared to sit that out if he had to and keeping him on the move would shorten that time. He was almost back at the door and folded his arms. ‘Soutar, you cannot stay cloaked forever.’

There was a treacherous clicking sound. Adam spun and Soutar slid back into visibility, a gun pointed at Adam’s head. The doctor was out of his reach, but that didn’t mean Adam was defenceless. Soutar, of course, knew that, too. ‘MANES, I have an intruder that I need to be disabled. But be gentle, I want to have a chat with him.’

Adam had felt the effects of EMP fields and grenades before, but this wasn’t like it. He had experienced this total loss of power only once, as if a button had been flipped in his head – and it had been, by Zhao Yun Ru. He groaned, the stab of pain in his skull nearly knocking him unconscious. The infolink had to be dead, too, leaving Francis in the dark. ‘Now that seems like it was effective.’ Blinded by the effect, Adam felt Soutar patting him down. ‘No weapons? So sure of your prowess, are you? And yet all it takes is a tiny shock to your systems.’

‘It doesn’t change anything,’ Adam ground out.

‘Oh, it changes everything. You see, I am pretty sure you were bluffing me. Your only friend in the world is going to be punished for the death of those low-lives. No-one else will miss you. And who knows, maybe even he won’t.’

Adam considered disenchanting Soutar of his conviction that Francis was still in custody but then decided against it. ‘Your work? What work is that? Murder?’

‘I want to create beauty!’ Soutar ran his hands over Adam’s upper arms in the perversion of a caress. ‘You’ve always fascinated me. I am going to take a good look at you. Amazing technology in there, I hear.’

Adam listened into himself. The shock had left him all but drained, but his systems were slowly coming back to life. The MANES had indeed been gentle. He just needed more time. ‘So what you wanted to do was to … what, replicate me?’

‘In a manner of speaking. N-Pro Tech did such good work, until we were ruined by those … those Chinks. And I was on the verge of a breakthrough. Augs that were hidden like your blades, that could do precise, delicate work.’

‘Like Marcus Dillinger’s?’

‘Very much like his. Sadly, he was starting to remember.’

‘You placed a kill-switch in your victims, didn’t you?’

‘More like a remote control, but yes.’ Soutar gestured wildly. ‘I never wanted to kill anyone. It was necessary, of course, to get my hardware, but those that I wanted to augment that died afterwards, they were meant to live. I will rebuild us, we’ll be back better than ever before! And the others … illegals, mongrels! The bane of society, they are as of little consequence to authority as they are to me. It’s a … culling, of sorts.’

Adam thought of Tish back in Detroit, of Mei and Ning in Heng Sha, and wanted to beat Soutar to death with his bare fists. ‘Why didn’t you try and find work with TYM?’

‘I did. But I wasn’t good enough for them.’

‘Is it that, or were they not good enough for you? Didn’t want to work for people you consider inferior because of their place of birth?’

‘You think I’m a racist? I would have done anything to work for them! I breathed for N-Pro Tech and the opportunities augmentation offered humanity. But no, they didn’t want Doctor Soutar, no.’ Soutar shook his head. The last of Adam’s system, including the infolink, came back online. He activated it to let Francis know he wasn’t dead. Not yet, at least. A smile formed on Soutar’s face. ‘Ah. You know, this party is rather small. The other guest is coming right now.’

With another beep, the door opened again and Sergio slipped inside. Repulsion had shaped his face into a horrible mask. Adam’s Social Enhancer was all over the place. Sergio didn’t hate Adam. He hated the situation, being in it, and what he was supposed to do. He stood half behind Adam, pointing a gun at him as well. His hands were steady, but the rest of him was not. ‘Give up, Jensen,’ he said. The plea in his voice was easy to miss, but Adam had been a cop long enough to pick it up. ‘It’s better that way.’

‘Jensen,’ Francis said, his voice laced with fear. ‘You do still have the Typhoon.’

‘I am not a murderer,’ Adam answered, even though he’d considered it. He could practically hear the gears turning in Sergio’s head. He had one chance to end this without bloodshed. ‘Francis, send an ambulance for Fabian and the cops for them. Soutar, I’d raise my hands in surrender, but I have a feeling you’re going to kill me anyway. So do it. Shoot. The MANES has drained me practically dry, I cannot shield myself. Go on.’ He swallowed. He had addressed Soutar, but the words had been for Sergio. The next were not, or at least only in part. They were what he had to say in case this went pear-shaped. ‘Francis … I’m going to end the call now. You don’t have to see this. Goodbye, my love.’


	23. And Never Let One Corn Of It Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((Chapter heading is a line from_ Scarborough Fair _, which you might know from Simon & Garfunkel. Their version doesn’t have that line, though.))_

Adam let himself fall the moment the shot bellowed. The pain never came, but he heard a wail. Looking up, Adam saw Soutar clutching a bloody hand. Sergio advanced on him. ‘You’re done,’ he said. ‘I’ve watched too long already.’

‘Sergio.’

‘He’s a monster, and he made me one, too!’

Adam picked himself up and took a careful step towards him, reaching out towards him. ‘Sergio, don’t do this. The police are on their way.’

‘I … I’ve got to run!’

Adam plucked Soutar’s gun from the ground. ‘You won’t get far. The MANES will knock you out cold. We have to wait, it’ll let in the police.’

The fight bled out of Sergio, his shoulders sagging. ‘I’ve lost everything, though. There goes my chance to ever have a normal life again. I should have stayed at home.’

‘I know someone who was in jail and has picked himself up nicely,’ Adam told him. ‘For a different kind of crime, granted, but he wasn’t being forced. Your life doesn’t end here.’

‘Oh, but it does,’ Soutar said. He darted to the turret and hit a switch. Adam shot towards Sergio and knocked his knees out from under him, collapsing them both behind the counter and outside the line of fire. Soutar swore. ‘MANES! Do something! Make them pay for me.’

‘I will need more specific instructions.’

The AI’s words were followed by complete silence.

‘What … what is he doing?’ Sergio asked.

Adam glanced around one corner of their counter. Soutar was lying on his side, facing them. He was clearly dead. ‘Suicide pill, I’d guess.’ He couldn’t get himself to care. ‘Listen. I found a letter from Soutar blackmailing you, and if you’ve got more of them, all the better for you. You probably won’t get out of this unpunished, but it’s not as bad as you think right now. There’s also the fact that you just saved my life, and I’m more than willing to testify what happened.’

‘Jacob, please specify your request,’ the MANES said with a note of urgency no AI should possess.

‘Fuck,’ Adam said. ‘MANES, Soutar is dead. He committed suicide.’

‘You do realise I cannot let you go.’ The bloody thing sounded so much like Francis it hurt.

‘Yeah. Do your worst. But do kill that turret. You don’t want it to harm the police.’ This time, the effect wasn’t painful. In fact, it was almost bliss to fall into the darkness that came with the shock.

Ϡ

Adam opened his eyes to too bright light and an antiseptic smell permeating his being. He allowed himself a groan. A hand, its touch so familiar, cupped his cheek. ‘Slowly, Adam. Take your time. You’re safe, mostly intact, and I’m here.’ Adam captured the hand and brought it to his lips to kiss it.

‘Glasgow hospital?’

‘No, you were both brought up to Aberdeen. None of you were in a critical condition and Aberdeen has at least some people who can deal with augment malfunctions. It seems they’re the go-to hospital for lack of a L.I.M.B. clinic.’ Francis’s voice was strained. ‘I’ve never felt so useless. I’m a coward, hiding behind his desk, while you risked your life out there.’

Adam struggled to a sitting position and looked at Francis. The clouds in his head were starting to clear. ‘Francis listen to me. Without you, I’d be dead. I’d have died in Montreal, maybe even earlier, but that was one situation I would never had escaped without you. Your presence was only via infolink, but I knew I could rely on you even then. That was the hardest part about Prague. I missed you having my back.’ He looked at Francis and couldn’t help smiling. ‘Hey. Remember how we met the Juggernaut collective? They held you at gunpoint, and you were completely calm. You are a brave man. You’ve got to be, to be with me.’

‘You really think that, don’t you?’

Adam nodded. ‘Absolutely.’ He rubbed his forehead. ‘Any idea how long I have to stay? I’d like to get out of here.’

‘You can, if you’re not dizzy or sick. Then they’ll keep you. But Sergio wanted to see you. He’s been up for about half an hour, but he’s a lot more shaken than you are. Also he’s going into custody.’

‘Yeah. Figures.’ He found his clothes folded neatly on a chair. Only now he realised he was in one of those horrible patient gowns. ‘Any chance you’re going to turn around to protect my modesty?’

‘Keep dreaming.’

Ϡ

Frank led the way into the cafeteria. Sergio greeted Adam with a handshake. ‘I wanted to thank you. For not condemning me.’ He swallowed. ‘I’ve got a request. There’s another patient here, Reginald Jones. Reg.’

‘Yes, the one who wanted to remove his augment.’

‘Yeah. Talk to him. You’ve been where he is.’ A smile tugged on Sergio’s lips. ‘I may have asked Reg to meet us. I want to come clean to him, but I’d rather not do that alone.’ He looked at Frank. ‘You’re the guy he was talking to, huh?’

‘Yes. I … thank you. For saving Adam’s life.’ He shuddered. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without him.’

Adam put an arm around Frank and pulled him close to kiss his temple. Sergio ordered coffee and drank it with a light tremor in his hands. ‘There’s Reg.’ He waved the other man over. ‘Hi.’

Reg was a wiry man, much shorter than Adam and with a bitter expression on his face. ‘Serge. You got yourself electrocuted or something?’

‘Or something.’ He swallowed. ‘I need to … Look, Reg. I … uh … It wasn’t a monster that took you. That was me. I lured you to a certain place and I knew what would happen to you there.’

‘You did _what_?’

‘He was being blackmailed,’ Adam said. ‘A former N-Pro Tech doctor threatened Sergio into bringing him people.’ He smiled. ‘Sergio quit and made sure that no-one else would get hurt.’

‘And you are …’ Reg stalled himself. ‘Hang on. You’re Jensen, that badass cop-type. You’ve been on the news.’

‘So I’ve heard.’

‘Look,’ Sergio said. ‘I handed myself in already. But I wanted you to know.’

‘Just be glad I don’t believe in violence.’ He glared at Adam. ‘And what do you want?’

‘Look. I know you didn’t want to be augmented.’

‘That’s an understatement. I was part of the Humanity Front, for God’s sake.’

‘I wasn’t one of Taggart’s followers, but I saw his point, to a degree.’

‘Yeah, then it was your life, and all of a sudden you saw things differently.’

‘No.’ Adam leaned forwards. ‘I wasn’t even asked. I believed that I was dying, and when I woke up, I was … this. And I hated it. I couldn’t stand the sight of myself.’ Adam felt Francis’s hand on his arm, the gentle pressure soothing away the ghosts. He covered it with his own. ‘But here’s the deal. You’re still a man. You can still have it all.’

‘It seems that you do.’ Reg shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I used to be someone, you know. After the Incident I lost my job, even though I wasn’t augmented. But the entire economy was fucked up, and no-one needed me.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I was a mechanic.’ He made a face. ‘I landed myself in that shelter and ultimately with that fucking aug. I didn’t even try properly. It felt as if God had forsaken us all. And then this happened. At first I just wanted to kill myself. But I … I need to get out of here already. I want my life back, damn it.’

Sergio licked his lips. ‘You’re still a mechanic, Reg. And we’ve got enough industry around here. You’ll find your place. No-one’s taking your education from you.’

‘The man who augmented you is dead,’ Adam said. ‘If you seek it, you’ll find closure. I know I did.’

‘Yeah. Just … let me be. And you get out of my sight, Serge. I may not bash your skull in, but I don’t want your company, either. Get lost, the lot of you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((On a side-note, and because I’m a nice person I’m doing this after the chapter rather than before, I got a comment on Ao3 that I wasn’t going to kill Adam. True, I wasn’t. But I did take this opportunity to look through my fiction on both platforms and make a headcount as far as I remember by just looking at the titles.  
>  The sum total of canon characters murdered by me is 10 or 12. One of them isn’t dead yet (not this story, don’t worry), but I know they will die. More than that one will die, but of this character I am sure. One of my corpses is a gender-bent version of an original character whose sex or name I didn’t know when I wrote them, even though I did know they existed and just guessed wrong. There is also one instance of a character that can die in the canon universe but doesn’t have to. This headcount is spread over 5 stories. Sometimes it’s just one death per story, in one case there’s five canon characters (or four, if you don’t count the recreated one) that bite the dust within the same fic, seven within its series.  
> So trusting me to let people live because they’re canon or because of their age or anything else might be a very bad idea.))_


	24. Epilogue: Ar hyd y nos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _((You thought Ukrainian is bad? Have some Welsh! We’ll ignore for a moment that this is a carol, right? Translation is_ All Through the Night _. It was a pleasure!))_

Adam awoke to a whisper of warm breath against his neck. It was enough to make up for the dull ache that suffused his entire body. They had to drive back down to Glasgow to pick up Adam’s car. They would also have to testify eventually. Right now, Adam couldn’t bring himself to care. All that mattered was his partner cuddled against him, already awake and looking at him with such affection. ‘Hey,’ Adam said.

A small smile formed on Francis’s face. The difference between it and the disgusted smirk he’d had for him all that time ago was like night and day. ‘I need to tell you something, Adam,’ Francis said.

‘Spill.’

‘I’ll never forget how I realised I actually cared about you. On your way to Singapore, you were just … gone. Everyone thought you’re dead. I refused to accept it, kept waiting for something, some life sign.’

‘That early?’

‘I wasn’t in love with you then, but I wasn’t indifferent, either, and I was so angry how everyone just accepted that you were gone.’ He snuggled closer. ‘I realised that I did more than care when you were in Prague. I was too scared to do let you know, of course. So I lured you here. Not exactly under a false premise, but I didn’t realise how big this would get. I’d never have done it if I’d known. I wouldn’t have asked you to risk your life.’

‘Thing is, Francis, this is my life.’ Adam shrugged. ‘I did tell Miller I’m not going back to Prague. I told him that I have a family and have no intention of leaving that behind.’

‘What did he say?’

‘Asked if I wanted a recommendation to the local police.’

‘Well, then one of us would have a regular job, at least. I … between meeting deadlines from Picus and keeping the MANES in check I won’t have the time or the need. It scares me a bit, being self-employed, but if I take a regular job on top of it I won’t have time for us and I refuse to do that.’

‘The MANES that demanding?’

‘At times. I need to do research, keep it up to date and offer support. You know, I got a request from the home office to sell to them.’ Francis sighed deeply. ‘The problem is, of course, that they do need to be able to use lethal force, and I refuse to change the program to allow that. Also it’s not what I wanted: an AI security for normal people, affordable and reliable. So I told them no. I don’t want to think of the amount of credits I could have got out of that deal.’

‘Well. If it’s any comfort, I took Miller’s offer.’ He sighed. ‘I was in his apartment once. He was married, two kids. I found photos of him and his husband on the wall. I also found divorce papers. He told me that his ex-husband contacted him after Miller nearly died from the Orchid, apparently frantic. I hope for them that they can work it out, if that’s even possible.’

‘Yes, nearly losing the one you love can be a wake-up call. They wouldn’t be the first couple to get back together after a divorce, either. If there’s still love between them, maybe the near-tragedy helped them see what counts.’ Francis propped himself up and looked down at Adam with a serious expression. ‘Which is where I was going. I nearly lost you. And your line of work isn’t without risks. I’ll be the whisper in your ears as long as you’ll have me, but that can only help you so much. But … even if I’ll lose you, even if all I’m in for is pain because you’re going to die on me, I want … I want you in my life as long as I can, Jensen, and I want it to be official. I want to marry you. Because I want to be whom they call if something happens and I wasn’t aware. I want to have a right to know how you’re doing if you land in hospital rather than rely on you muttering my name while you’re semi-conscious.’

‘I did that?’

‘Yes. Before I arrived even, so they got that you actually wanted me there.’

Adam smiled and turned, pushing Francis on his back and settling on top of him between his legs. ‘I can’t believe it, but I’m actually going to answer this completely unromantic proposal. I’ll marry you, but there’s something I need to know. Do you really want this because it’s practical?’

Francis glared up at him. ‘I’m keeping my name. Just so we’re clear.’

‘Me too.’

Francis’s scowl transformed into a smile. ‘Do you actually have to ask why I want to marry you?’

Adam couldn’t help himself. He smiled back. ‘No. You show me the real reason every day.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _((Thanks for reading! And special thanks, of course, for all those who left me a comment, I love you for your support!))_


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